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Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2011  with  funding  from 

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http://www.archive.org/details/lifelettersofdrsOObrad 


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the: 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS 


OF 


DR.  SAMUEL  HAHNEMANN, 


BY 


THOMAS  LINDSLEY  BRADFORD,  M.  D. 


Author  cf  Homoeopathic  Bibliography  of  the  United  States  ;   Senior  of  the 

America7i  Institute  of  Homoeopathy  ;  Member  of  Homceopathic 

Medical  Society  of  Pennsylvania  ;  Philadelphia  County 

Homoeopathic  Medical  Society. 


PHILADELPHIA : 

BOERICKK  &  TAFEL. 
1895. 


Copyrighted,  1894, 

BY 

BoERiCKK  &  Tafel. 


T.  B.  &  H.  B.  COCHRAN,  PRINTERS, 
LANCASTER, PA. 


^ 


H^rjis  L00J5  IS  pespzcfjully    (azd.iGetfeia  fa 

ry.   n.  JeJuaqeor),   uV.   Je).,   ©J    Jjorjaor),   Oi)qlerr)ia, 

f^ar)  v^r)0rr)    i}®  arje  r)ets  aarje.    ir)0i?(z  f©  rer^dep  t^  wnfirjqs   ©f 

p.efr)r)(zrr)(ar)r)  Gtccessikle.  f©  l^e   Cr)qlisr)-speec^ir)q 


Pi^  milil^  jljaflit  tst  groK^." 


PREFACE. 


In  1847,  Dr.  Constantine  Hering,  the  Father  of  American 
Homoeopathy,  published  in  the  Hygea  an  article,  entitled  "Requi- 
sites to  a  Correct  Estimate  of  Hahnemann."  In  this  he  wrote 
that  in  order  to  worthily  estimate  the  character  of  this  man,  be- 
longing to  history,  it  would  be  necessary  to  mention  the  age  in 
which  he  lived;  to  depict  the  life  at  Meissen,  the  home  life,  the 
•school  days,  the  artist-father  and  the  mother,  the  early  training 
of  the  boy.  After  this  to  describe  the  life  and  labors  up  to  1790, 
the  year  of  the  discovery  of  the  New  Law  of  Healing,  and  then: 

"The  foundation  being  thus  laid,  and  the  man  presented  to 
us  in  his  daily  life,  his  thoughts  and  his  labors,  his  time  and  his 
contemporaries,  the  second  and  most  important  part  would  be 
devoted  to  the  consideration  of  his  new  opinions,  and  a 
statement  of  the  origin  and  gradual  development,  step  by 
step,  of  Homoeopathy.  From  the  note  in  Cullen's  "Materia 
Medica,"  through  all  his  subsequent  writings,  and  even  through 
the  successive  editions  of  the  "Organon,"  the  materials  must  be 
industriously  sought  and  carefully  brought  together  down  to  the 
latest  words  of  the  expiring  sage. 

"Through  the  whole  of  this,  criticism  should  be  silent,  no 
partisanship  should  divert  shallow  readers  with  straight  laced 
conventionalities,  the  day-spring  of  the  discoverer's  thought 
should  appear  in  its  true  primordial  form,  in  its  progress  and  in 
its  growth,  exempt  from  all  cavil. 

"After  his  writings,  after  his  published  and  his  various  un- 
published correspondence  and  other  productions,  the  inner  moral 
state  of  the  man,  the  heart  and  feelings  must  be  developed  as 
the  hidden  spring  of  all.  Here,  where,  for  us  as  for  all  men,  lies 
the  danger  of  error;  yea,  the  greatest  danger,  that  of  being  un- 
just— and  where  we  would,  least  of  all,  dare  to  be  unjust — here 
the  greatest  watchfulness  and  most  rigorous  care  are  but  require- 
ments of  the  lowest  and  commonest  duty.  Nothing  in  the  shape 
of  testimony  should  here  be  omitted,  not,  however,  what  others 
have  said  of  him,  but  what  he  has  said  of  himself  and  of  others. 


"Next  to  this  should  be  given  his  character,  his  mode  of 
thought  as  they  concerned  domestic,  civic  and  political  life,  and 
his  conduct  as  man,  husband,  father  and  citizen,  and  then  his 
bearing  as  physician,  preceptor,  colleague  and  controversialist. 
We  are  all  the  children  of  our  parents — circumstances,  moulded 
by  our  proximate  relations  in  proportion  to  their  force  and  repeti- 
tion— this  consideration  should  not  be  without  its  weight  in  the 
present  case. 

"The  multitude  of  calumnies  against  Hahnemann  should  not 
protract  their  brief  existence  by  a  place  in  such  a  volume. 
Where,  however,  they  chafed  or  roused  their  noble  mark  (for  in 
his  venerable  age  he  was  at  times  galled  even  to  tears)  they 
might  merit  a  passing  notice. 

"Thus  should  the  historian  accompany  his  hero  to  the  time 
when  a  friendly  beckoning  hand  withdraws  him  from  things 
without;  his  senses  close  to  page  and  speech,  unfold  to  sources 
of  joy  and  hope,  and  he  departs,  at  peace  with  himself,  with 
God  and  with  the  mantled  world. 

"  Then  let  the  estimate  follow,  not  penned  by  the  laborious 
biographer,  but  formed  in  the  inmost  soul  of  him  who  shall 
have  read  and  weighed  the  whole." 

It  has  been  the  intention  to  follow  Dr.  Hering's  advice  and  to 
permit  Hahnemann  to  speak  by  means  of  his  writings;  to  avoid 
criticism  of  his  motives  and  to  be  very  chary  of  personal  opinion; 
to  narrate  in  a  concise  manner  the  romantic  story  of  his  wander- 
ings, his  persecutions,  his  discoveries,  his  triumphs  and  his 
peaceful  death,  with  the  hope  that  the  reader  may  find  in  the 
letters  and  events  of  this  long  and  remarkable  existence  reasons 
for  correctly  understanding  the  expounder  of  a  doctrine  believed 
by  so  many  to  be  founded  upon  an  eternal  law  of  God. 

While  much  has  been  published  in  the  past,  it  has  all  been 
fragmentary,  and  only  by  delving  within  the  covers  of  many  rare 
and  diflScult  volumes  can  it  be  found.  It  has  been  the  aim  to 
collect  everything  bearing  any  relation  to  the  career  of  Hahne- 
mann in  this  book.  The  German,  French  and  English  literature 
have  been  thoroughly  examined,  considerable  of  the  matter 
being  for  the  first  time  published  in  English. 

The  portrait  of  Hahnemann  is  taken  from  an  oil  painting  now 
in  the  possession  of  the  Hahnemann  Medical  College  of  Phila- 
delphia.    Mr.  Enoch  Pratt,  of  Baltimore,  to  whom  it  formerly 


belonged,  says  of  it:  "I  was  in  Paris  in  1855,  at  the  request  of 
Dr.  Schmidt  of  this  city  (Baltimore),  I  found  the  widow  of  Dr. 
Hahnemann,  who  had,  she  considered,  the  best  original  likeness 
of  her  husband  painted  in  his  lifetime;  she  consented  to  my 
having  it  copied,  which  was  done  by  Hathaway,  a  distinguished 
painter  of  that  day,  in  her  house,  under  her  own  supervision, 
and  she  pronounced  it  perfect,  saying  she  could  distinguish  no 
difference  in  them.  I  consider  yours  an  original  and  very  valu- 
able." 

This  compilation  has  been  made  so  that  not  only  the  younger 
physicians  and  students  of  our  school  but  other  readers  may 
readily  gain  access  to  the  facts  in  the  life  of  Hahnemann,  bril- 
liant chemist,  learned  physician,  great  reformer  and  cultured 
man,  and  that  they  may  become  more  familiar  with  the  story  of 
his  marvelous  career. 

And  at  this  time  when  the  people  are  finding  out  that  there  is 
truth  behind  the  doctrines  of  Homoeopathy,  it  is  the  hope  of  the 
compiler  that  this  book  may  be  accepted  as  a  biographical  mon- 
ument to  the  memory  of  this  man  whose  teachings  and  influence 
have  done  so  much  to  rob  sickness  of  its  terrors  and  to  restore 
health  to  humanity. 


I 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 
Meissen,  the  Capital  of  Misnia — The  Porcelain  Factory — The  House 
Where  Hahnemann  was  Born, 9 

CHAPTER  II. 
Story  of  the  Earlier  Days  of  Hahnemann  Told  by  Himself— School 
Life — Ivcipsic — Vienna, 11 

CHAPTER  III. 
Autobiography   Continued — Baron   v.   Bruckenthal — First  Years  as  a 
Physician, 13 

CHAPTER  IV. 
School  Days — Thinking  Lessons — The  Lamp  of  Clay — Hahnemann  to 
be  a  Grocer,    .    • 15 

CHAPTER  V. 
Life  at  Leipsic  and  Vienna — Poem  to  Prof.  Zeune, 17 

CHAPTER  VI. 
Life  at  Hermanstadt — Graduation   at   Erlangen — Return  to  Saxony — 
Dessau,     19 

CHAPTER  VII. 
Marriage — Life  at  Gommern — Uncertainty — First  Original  Work,  ...    22 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
Dissatisfaction  with  Mode  of  Practice — Letter  to  Hufeland — Hufeland 
on  Homoeopathy — Medical  Anarchy  of  the  Time,      24 

CHAPTER  IX. 
Gommern — Life  at  Dresden — Literary  Work — The  Wine  Test — Slum- 
ber Song,      27 

CHAPTER  X. 
Life  at  Dresden — Original   Writings — Chemical   Discoveries— Soluble 
Mercury — Departure  for  Leipsic, 32 

CHAPTER  XL 
Beloved  Leipsic — Cullen's  Materia  Medica — First   Experiments   with 
Peruvian  Bark — First  Provings  Upon  the  Healthy, 35 


X  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  XII. 
Poverty — Continued  Literary  Labors — Powers  of  Peruvian  Bark— Faith 
in  God's  Goodness, 39 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
Further  Experiments— Insanity  of  Klockenbriug — Asylum  at  Georgen- 
thal — Gentle  Methods  with  the  Insane, 44 

CHAPTER  XIV. 
Molschleben— Letters  to  a  Patient — Pyrmont — Wolfeubuttel — Konigs- 
lutter,    .    .    .   • 47 

CHAPTER  XV. 
First  Essay  on  the  Curative  Power  of  Drugs — Hufeland's  Journal  — 

Enmity  of  Kouigslutter  Physicians, 49 

CHAPTER  XVI. 
Letter  to  Patient  on  Cheerful  Methods  of  Life, 53 

CHAPTER  XVII. 
Epidemic  of  Scarlatina — Departure  from  Kouigslutter — Accident  on  the 
Journey — Complaint  to  the  Public — Belladonna  in  Scarlatina — Altona- 
Medical  Liberality  of  the  Nineteenth  Century, 56 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 
Curious  Preface  to  Thesaurus  Medicaminum — Alkali  Pneum — MoUen — 
Eilenburg — Macheru — Dessau — Torgau, 63 

CHAPTER  XIX. 
Essay  on  Coffee— Medicine  of  Experience — Denial  of  a  False  Report 
About  Scarlatina — ^sculapius  in  the  Balance, 6S 

CHAPTER  XX. 
First  Collection  of  Provings — The  Last  Translation — Medicine  of  Expe- 
rience— The  Organon — Attacks  Upon  Its  Teachings, 72 

CHAPTER  XXI. 
Removal  to  Leipsic — Letters  from  vSister  Charlotte — Wish  to  Establish 
a  School   of  Homoeopathy — Dissertation   on   Hellebore — Allopathic 
Praise — Lectures  Commenced, 80 

CHAPTER  XXII. 
Correspondence  with  Robbi— Proving  Remedies — Hahnemann  to  Stapf, 
on   Proving — Hartmanu's  Story  of  Hahnemann's  Life  at  Leipsic — 
Hahnemann's  Students, 92 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 
Hartmann's    Story    Continued — Methods    of    Proving — Hahnemann's 
Domestic  Life — Methods  of  Prescribing, 103 


CONTENTS.  XI 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 
Von  Bruunow's  Story — Hahnemann's  Appearance — Mode  of  Life  at  His 
House — Prince  Schwartzeuberg, io8 

CHAPTER  XXV. 
Hahnemann's  Opinion  of  Allopathy— New  Persecutions — Appeal  to  the 
Courts — The    Leipsic    Apothecaries — Treatment    of   Field    Marshal 
Schwartzeuberg  and  His  Death, 113 

CHAPTER  XXVI. 
Persecution  of  Dr.  Franz — Hahnemann's  Wish  for  Peace — Letter  to  Dr. 
Billig — Accusation  Against  Hartmann — Invitation  to  Coethen — Letter 
to  Stapf — Reasons  for  Leaving  Leipsic — Dr.  A.  J.  Haynel, 120 

CHAPTER  XXVII. 
Act  Granting  Permission  to  Practice  Homoeopathy  in  Coethen — Per- 
mission Granted  Dr.  Mossdorf  to  Act  as   Hahnemann's  Assistant — 
Letter  to  Stapf, 126 

CHAPTER  XXVIII. 
Literary  Work — Editions  of  the  "  Organon  " — Founding  of  the  Archiv 
— Prefaces  to  the  Materia  Medica  Pura, 135 

CHAPTER  XXIX. 
Hahnemann's   Great  and  Varied  Knowledge — Reimarus  Fragments — 
Paper  on  Chemistry — Advice  to  Stapf— Death  of  Caspari, 142 

CHAPTER  XXX. 
Total   Demolition   of  Homoeopathy   by   the   Allopathic   Physicians — 
Hahnemann's  Answers, 150 

CHAPTER  XXXI. 
Public    Trials    of    Homoeopathy — Hering's     Conversion — Letters     to 
Hering — Accuracy   of    Hahnemann — His    Faith   in   the    Spread   of 
Homoeopathy, 157 

CHAPTER  XXXII. 
Theory  of  Chronic  Diseases — Letter  to  Baumgartner, 164 

CHAPTER   XXXIII. 
Chronic    Diseases   Continued — Psora   a   Cause   of    Disease — The   Itch 
Theory — Dr.  Raue  on  the  Itch  Theory,      170 

CHAPTER  XXXIV. 
Letters  to  Stapf  on  the  Chronic  Diseases — Vaccination  Theory,   .    .    .    .173 

CHAPTER  XXXV. 
Existence  of  the  Itch  Insect  Known  to  Hahnemann — Letter  on  Birth- 
day to  Stapf, 178 


Xll  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XXXVI. 
First  Method   of   Preparing  Homceopathic    Medicine — First    Pocket 
Cases — Korsakoff  on  the  Use  of  Glass  Vials — Hahnemann's  Opinion 
Regarding  the  Practice  of  Medicine — Letter  to  Dr.  Eberhardt,     .    .    .182 

CHAPTER  XXXVII. 
Fiftieth  Fest-Jubilee — Letters  to  Rummel — Hahnemann's  Portrait,    .    .  188 

CHAPTER  XXXVIII. 
Celebration  of  the  Fiftieth  Fest-Jubilee  at  Coethen — Letter  from  Hah- 
nemann Concerning  It — Foundation  of  First  Homceopathic  Society,  194 

CHAPTER  XXXIX. 
Letters  to  Hering,  Rummel  and  Stapf, 199 

CHAPTER  XL. 
Hahnemann  and  the  Vis  Medicatrix  Naturae, 204 

CHAPTER  XLI. 
Death  of  Frau  Dr.  Hahnemann — Family  Life  Described — Letter  to  Stapf 
on  the  Subject  of  the  Last  Illness, 210 

CHAPTER  XLII. 
French  Biography  of  Hahnemann— True  Pictures  from  the  Life  of  Frau 
Hahnemann, 213 

CHAPTER  XLIII. 
True  Pictures  Continued, 221 

CHAPTER  XLIV. 
True  Pictures  Concluded— Albrecht  Upon  the  Matter — Hahnemann's 

Letter  to  Elise 225 

CHAPTER  XLV. 
Cure  of  Dr.  Aegidi, 231 

CHAPTER  XLVI. 
Report   of  Cases  by   Hahnemann— Essay   on    Phthisis— Pitch-Plaster 
Recommended  by  Hahnemann, 236 

CHAPTER  XLVII. 
Right  of  the  Physician  to  be  Well  Paid— Allopathy— Censorship  of 
the  Press, 241 

CHAPTER  XLVIII. 
Cholera  in  1831-32 — Hahnemann's  Opinion  of  Bleeding — Homoeopathic 
Treatment  of  Cholera,      245 

CHAPTER  XLIX. 
Hahnemann's  Advice  for  Treatment  of  Cholera 250 


CONTENTS.  Xlll 

CHAPTER  L. 
Dr.  Quiu's  Attack  of  Cholera — Legal  Hiudrauces  to  Homceopathy,    .    .  258 

CHAPTER  LI. 
Letters  to  Schweikert, 262 

CHAPTER  LII. 
Letters  to  Schweikert  Continued — Hahnemann's   Opinion  of  Spinal 
Braces, 268 

CHAPTER  LIII. 
Death  of  Duke  Ferdinand — Hahnemann's  Letter  to  Duke  Henry — Let- 
ter to  Aegidi, 273 

CHAPTER  LIV. 
Life  at  Coethen — Dr.  Peschier's  Visit— Homoeopathy  in  America — Let- 
ter to  Trinius — Wanted,  a  Homoeopathist, 278 

CHAPTER  LV. 
Dr.  Griesselich's  Visit  to  Coethen — Letter  to  Dr.  Gerstel, 288 

CHAPTER  LVI. 
History  of  Leipsic  Homoeopathic  Hospital — Letters  to  Muller,    ....  292 

CHAPTER  LVII. 
Muller' s  Account  of  the  Hospital — Letter  to  the  Half-Horn oeopathists 
of  Leipsic, 297 

CHAPTER  LVIII. 
Discussion  in  the  Daily  Papers — Intolerance  of  Hahnemann — Letters 
from  Hahnemann  to  Hering — Hahnemann  to  Stapf, 302 

CHAPTER  LIX. 
Purchase  of  the  Hospital — The  Opening — Installation  of  Dr.  Schweikert 
— Hahnemann's  Letter — Fickel, 308 

CHAPTER  LX. 
Illness  of  Hahnemann — Celebration  of  1833 — Letter  to  Straube — Ameri- 
can Diploma, 313 

CHAPTER  LXI. 
Condition  of  Homoeopathy  in  1834 — Letter  and  Diploma  from  the  Gal- 
ilean Society — Hahnemann  Visits  the  Leipsic  Hospital — Denuncia- 
tion of  Household  Adviser — Sixth   Meeting  of  Central  Union — Last 
Festal  Day  in  Germany — Last  Appeal  for  the  Hospital, 318 

CHAPTER  LXII. 
Mile.  d'Hervilly — Second  Marriage — Romantic  Stories  About  the  Bride,  325 


XIV  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  LXIII. 
Newspaper  Wit— Isensee's  Statement  About  the  Marriage, 330 

CHAPTER  LXIV. 
Dr.  Puhlmanu's  Account  of  Hahnemann's  Daughters, 334 

CHAPTER  LXV. 
Hahnemann's  Will,      338 

CHAPTER  IvXVI. 
Departure  for  Paris — Letter  by  Dr.  Peschier — Permission  to  Practice 
Granted — Honors  from  Gallicau  Homoeopathic  Society — Address  of 
Hahnemann — Kretzschmar  on  a  Union  of  Homoeopathy  and  Allo- 
pathy— Hahnemann's  Answer, 342 

CHAPTER  LXVII. 
Practice  in  Paris— Red-Letter  Fete  Days — Treatment  of  the  Marquis 
of  Anglesey — Presentation  of  Medal  by  French  Physicians, 350 

CHAPTER  LXVIII. 
Dr.  Detwiller's  Visit  to  Hahnemann — Hahnemann  to  Dr.  Hering,      .    .  356 

CHAPTER  LXIX. 
Life  in  Paris — Story  Told  by  a  Former  Patient  of  Hahnemann — Corre- 
spondence Between  Dr.  Balogh  and  the  Hahnemanns, 362 

CHAPTER  LXX. 
Hahnemann  to   Dr.   Hennicke — Eighty-third   Birthday  Fete — Hahne- 
mann to  Stapf, 370 

CHAPTER  LXXI. 
Helen  Berkley — Mrs.  Mowatt's  Visit  to  Hahnemann, 376 

CHAPTER  LXXIL 
Mrs.  Mowatt's  Story  Continued 382 

CHAPTER  LXXIII. 
A   Cure   by   Hahnemann — His  Preface  to  Arsenicum — Sixtieth  Anni- 
versary of  Graduation — Rules  of  FVench   Homoeopathic  College — 
Homoeopathy  in  Paris, 388 

CHAPTER  LXXIV. 
Pleasant  Home  Life — Correspondence  with  His  Daughters, 394 

CHAPTER  LXXV. 
Eighty-fifth  Birthday— Cure  of  the  Child  of  Legouve, 400 

CHAPTER  LXXVI. 
Epic  Poem  on  Homoeopathy — Dr.  Hull's  Visit  to  Hahnemann — Letter 
to  Dr.  Schreeter — Eighty-sixth  Birthday 407 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  lyXXVII. 


Hahnemann's  Modesty  Concerning  an  Honorary  Tablet — Last  Illness 
and  Death, 414 

CHAPTER  LXXVIII. 
Burial  of  Hahnemann — Meetings  of  Respect — Translations  of  Rummel's 
Poem, 421 

CHAPTER  LXXIX. 
Personality — Lessons   from  His    Life — Birthplace — Personal    Traits — 
Examination  of  a  Student, 428 

CHAPTER  LXXX. 
Property — Happiness  in  Paris — The  Old  Home  at  Coethen — Habits  of 
Life — Religious  Faith, 434 

CHAPTER  LXXXI. 
Relations  to  His  Patients — Mode  of  Life — His  Religious  Views — Vigor 
in  Old  Age,      441 

CHAPTER  LXXXH. 
The  Posology  of  Hahnemann, 445 

CHAPTER  LXXXIII. 
Posology  Continued, ■ 451 

CHAPTER  LXXXIV. 
Posology  Continued, 457 

CHAPTER  LXXXV. 
Posology  Concluded, 463 

CHAPTER  LXXXVI. 
Trial  of  Madame  Hahnemann  for  Practicing  Illegally — Visit  of  Dr.  I.  T. 
Talbot, 468 

CHAPTER  LXXXVII. 
Letter  to  Dr.  Nichols  Regarding  Madame  Hahnemann,  by  a  former 
Patient — Visit  of  Dr.  Neidhard, 474 

CHAPTER  LXXXVIII. 
Rival  Editions  of  the  Organon — By  Lutze— Suss-Hahnemann — Madame 
Hahnemann — Opinions  of  the  Profession, 477 

CHAPTER  LXXXIX. 
The  Rival  Organons  Continued— Letters  by  Madame  Hahnemann,  .    .    484 

CHAPTER  XC. 
The  Organons  Continued — Dr.  Bayes'  Offer  for  the  MSS. — Correspond- 
ence Between  Madame  Hahnemann  and  Dr.  T.  P.  Wilson, 489 


XVI  COETENTS. 

CHAPTER  XCI. 
Death  of  Madame  Habuemann — Madame  Boenninghausen  to  Dr.  T.  P. 
Wilson — Visit  of  Dr.  J.  A.  Campbell  to  Madame  Boeuninghauseii,  .    .  492 

CHAPTER  XCII. 
Letters  from  Madame  Boenninghausen — Meeting  of  Homoeopathic  Phy- 
sicians,   498 

Hahnemann's  Family, 505 

Bibliography, 507 


THE  LIFE  OF  HAHNEMANN 


CHAPTER  I. 

MEISSEN,  THE   CAPlTAIv   OF   MISNIA. 

In  the  days  gone  by,  there  was  situated  in  Upper  Saxony  a 
beautiful  town  called  Meissen;  it  was  the  capital  of  the  Margra- 
vate  of  Misnia,  and  was  located  on  the  little  river  Meisse,  near 
its  junction,  with  the  stately  Elbe,  in  a  fertile  valley  rich  in 
corn  and  vineyards,  and  was  about  twelve  miles  northwest  of 
the  city  of  Dresden. 

In  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  the  period  of  which 
we  write,  Meissen  had  about  four  thousand  inhabitants,  many 
of  whom  were  expert  artists,  chemists  and  painters.  It  was  a 
town  of  importance,  for  it  contained  a  branch  of  the  Electoral 
Academy  of  Sciences,  various  cloth  factories,  and  a  manufactory 
for  the  newly  discovered  and  wonderful  "  China-glass,"  or  por- 
celain. 

This  porcelain  factory  was  in  the  ruins  of  an  ancient  castle, 
which  stood  on  the  side  of  a  mountain  near  by.  The  main  por- 
tion alone  was  standing;  the  wings,  the  former  homes  of  the 
Burgraves  of  Saxony,  had  long  been  but  a  mass  of  ruins.  This 
central  building,  known  as  the  Albertsburg,  had  been  for  many 
years  occupied  by  the  Saxon  Margraves,  the  rulers  of  the  land, 
but  when  the  Electoral  Princes  went  to  live  in  Dresden,  this 
old  and  deserted  palace  of  the  Prince  Albrecht  was  turned  into 
a  manufactory  for  the  beautiful  and  rare  porcelain. 

In  the  town  there  was  a  Cathedral  church,  having  a  very 
lofty  spire  of  stone,  and  within  its  chapel  reposed  the  bones  of 
the  Saxon  Princes,  the  descendents  of  Frederick  the  Warlike. 
An  arched  church  belonging  to  the  castle  towered  above  the 


lO  LIFE   OF   HAHNEMANN. 

Steeple  of  the  town  church,  while  over  beyond,  was  the  moun- 
tain of  St.  Afra,  having  upon  its  side  a  building  that,  until  the 
middle  of  the  sixteenth  century,  had  been  a  Benedictine  con- 
vent, but  was  now  used  as  a  private  school,  and  was  called  the 
"Afraneum"  or  School  of  St.  Afra.  There  was  also  the  town 
school  which  was  known  as  the  "  Franciscaneum." 

At  this  time  the  new  art  of  ornamenting  the  china-glass  with 
colors,  with  gold,  and  with  painted  pictures,  was  a  great  secret, 
and,  as  such,  was  jealously  guarded.  All  the  chemists  and 
artists  engaged  in  this  work  were  sworn  to  secrecy,  and  only  men 
of  well-tried  integrity  were  employed. 

Upon  the  outskirts  of  the  village,  not  far  from  the  old  Albrecht 
Castle,  stood  a  long,  plain  building  of  three  stories  in  height, 
that  towered  high  above  its  neighbors,  and  was  known  as  the 
Eck-haus.  This  house,  on  the  6th  of  April,  1753,  one  Christian 
Gottfried  Hahnemann  bought  from  the  master-smith  Lohse,  for 
the  sum  of  437  thalers,  and  set  up  his  household  gods  within 
its  walls.  He  was  a  painter  on  porcelain,  and  had  come  to 
Meissen  to  adorn  the  dainty  ware  made  there.  The  Eck-haus 
stood  at  the  junction  of  two  streets,  the  Fleischstege  and  the 
Newmarket.  On  the  ground  floor,  in  a  corner  room  whose  two 
large  shuttered  windows  looked  out  on  the  Market  Place,  there 
was  born  upon  the  nth  of  April,  1755,  to  the  wife  of  the  painter 
Hahnemann,  a  son,  whose  wonderful  fortunes  in  life  are  now 
to  be  related.  The  baptismal  register  of  Meissen  contains  the 
following  record:-'^  "Christian  Friedrich  Samuel  Hahnemann, 
born  on  the  morning  of  the  nth  of  April,  of  1755;  baptized  the 
thirteenth  day  of  April  of  the  same  year,  by  M.  Junghanns. 
Father,  Christian  Gottfried  Hahnemann,  painter.  Mother, 
Johanna  Christiana,  born  Spiess."  The  worthy  pastor,  M.  Jung- 
hanns, was  of  the  lyUtheran  faith,  and  the  infant  was  baptized 
on  the  Sabbath  after  its  birth  according  to  those  tenets.  The 
date  of  Hahnemann's  birth  has  usually  been  given  as  the  loth, 
and  not  the  nth  of  April.  The  town  register  gives  the  nth, 
and  at  the  celebration  at  Meissen,  in  1855,  of  the  hundredth  birth- 
day, the  nth  was  the  day  selected. 

Fortunately  we  are  enabled  to  obtain  certain  knowledge  about 
the  early  days  of  this  great  man  by  means  of  his  autobiography. 


^British  Journal  Homoeopathy,  Vol.  13,  p.  525. 


THE  EARLIER  DAYS  OF  HAHNEMANN. 


CHAPTER  II. 

STORY  OF  THE  EARLIER  DAYS  OF  HAHNEMANN,  TOLD  BY  HIMSELF. 

I  was  born  April  lo,  1755,  in  the  Electorate  of  Saxony,  one 
of  the  most  beautiful  parts  of  Germany.  This  circumstance,  as 
I  grew  up  to  manhood,  doubtless  contributed  a  great  deal  to  my 
veneration  for  the  beauties  of  nature.  My  father,  Christian 
Gottfried  Hahnemann,  together  with  my  mother,  Johanna  Chris- 
tiana, born  Spiess,  for  a  pastime  taught  me  to  read  and  write. 
My  father  died  four  years  ago  (17S7.)  Without  being  deeply 
versed  in  science  (he  was  a  designer  in  a  porcelain  manufactory 
in  his  native  place,  and  is  the  author  of  a  brief  treatise  on 
painting  in  water  colors)  he  had  the  soundest  ideas  of  what 
may  be  considered  good  and  worthy,  and  he  implanted  them 
deeply  on  my  mind. 

To  live  and  to  act  without  pretence  or  show  was  his  most  note- 
worthy precept,  and  his  example  was  even  more  impressive  than 
his  words.  He  was  always  present,  though  often  unobserved, 
in  body  and  soul  wherever  any  good  was  to  be  done.  In  his 
acts  he  discriminated  with  the  utmost  nicety  between  the  noble 
and  the  ignoble,  and  he  did  it  with  a  justness  which  was  highly 
creditable  to  his  tender  feelings.  In  this  respect,  too,  he  was 
my  preceptor.  He  seemed  to  have  ideas  of  the  first  principles 
of  creation,  of  the  dignity  of  humanity,  and  of  its  ennobling 
destiny,  that  were  not  in  the  least  inconsistent  with  his  manner 
of  acting.  This  gave  direction  to  my  moral  training.  To  speak 
of  my  mental  training,  I  spent  several  years  in  the  public  school 
of  Meissen  so  as  to  go  thence,  in  my  sixteenth  year,  to  the  private 
school  (Fiirstenschule),  in  the  same  place,  and  four  years  there- 
after to  attend  the  Universit}'  of  Leipsic.  There  was  nothing 
noteworthy  respecting  me  at  school,  except  that  Master  Muller, 
my  teacher  in  ancient  languages  and  German  composition,  who 
besides  living  a  great  deal  for  the  world  and  me,  was  rector  of 
the  Meissen  private  school,  and  scarcely  has  had  his  equal  in  in- 
dustry and  honesty,  loved  me  as  his  own  child  and  allowed  me 
liberties  in  the  way  of  study,  which  I  am  thankful  for  to  this 
day,  and  which  had  a  perceptible  influence  upon  my  subsequent 
studies.  In  my  twelfth  year  he  intrusted  to  me  to  impart  to 
others  the  rudiments  of  the  Greek  language.     Moreover,  in  his 


12  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

private  classes  with  his  boarders  and  myself,  he  listened  atten- 
tively and  lovingly  to  my  critical  exposition  of  the  old  writers, 
and  often  preferred  my  meaning  to  his  own.  I  was  often  over- 
taxed and  became  ill  from  study,  and  was  the  only  one  who  was 
excused  from  lessons  at  times  unsuitable  for  me,  and  who  was 
permitted  to  hand  in  written  exercises  or  other  work  performed 
subsequently,  and  to  read  foreign  treatises  on  the  lessons.  I  had 
free  access  to  him  at  all  times  of  the  day,  and  in  many  respects 
was  given  the  preference  in  public  to  many  others;  and,  never- 
theless, which  is  very  strange,  my  fellow  pupils  loved  me.  All 
this  together  speaks  volumes  in  praise  of  a  Saxony  private  school. 

Here  I  was  less  solicitous  about  reading  than  about  digesting 
what  was  read,  and  was  careful  to  read  little,  but  to  read  cor- 
rectly and  to  classify  it  in  my  mind  before  reading  further.  My 
father  did  not  wish  me  to  study  at  all;  he  repeatedly  took  me 
from  the  public  school  for  a  whole  year,  so  that  I  might  pursue 
some  other  business  more  suited  to  his  income.  My  teachers 
prevented  this  by  not  accepting  any  pay  for  my  schooling  during 
the  last  eight  years,  and  they  entreated  him  to  leave  me  with 
them  and  thus  indulge  my  propensity  for  learning.  He  did  not 
resist  their  entreaty,  but  could  do  nothing  more  for  me.  On 
Easter,  1775,  he  let  me  go  to  I^eipsic,  taking  with  me  twenty 
thalers  for  my  support.  This  was  the  last  money  received 
from  his  hand.  He  had  several  other  children  to  educate  from 
his  scantv  income,  enough  to  excuse  any  seeming  negligence 
in  the  best  of  fathers. 

By  giving  instruction  in  German  and  French  to  a  rich  young 
Greek  from  Jassy,  in  Moldavia,  as  well  as  by  translating  English 
books,  I  supported  myself  for  the  time,  intending  to  leave  Leip- 
sic  after  a  stay  of  two  years. 

I  can  conscientiously  bear  testimony  that  I  endeavored  to 
practice  in  Leipsic  also,  the  rule  of  my  father,  never  to  be  a 
passive  listener  or  learner.  I  did  not  forget  here,  however,  to 
procure  for  my  body,  by  outdoor  exercise,  that  sprightliuess  and 
vigor  by  which  alone  continued  mental  exertion  can  be  success- 
fully endured. 

During  this  stay  in  Leipsic  I  attended  lectures  only  at  such 
hours  as  seemed  best  suited  to  me,  although  Herr  Bergrath 
Porner,  of  Meissen,  had  the  kindness  to  furnish  me  with  free 
tickets  to  the  lectures  of  all  the  medical  professors.     So  I  read 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY,   CONTINUED.  1 3 

by  myself,  unweariedly  of  course,  but  always  only  of  the  best 
that  was  procurable,  and  only  so  much  as  I  could  digest.  My 
fondness  for  practicing  medicine,  as  there  is  no  medical  school  at 
Leipzig,  led  me  to  go  to  Vienna  at  my  own  expense.  But  a  mali- 
cious trick  which  was  played  upon  me  and  which  robbed  me  of 
my  public  reputation  acquired  in  L,eipsic  (repentance  demands 
atonement,  and  I  say  nothing  about  names  and  circumstances) 
was  answerable  for  my  being  compelled  to  leave  Vienna  after  a 
sojourn  of  three-fourths  of  a  year.  During  these  nine  months  I 
had  had  for  my  support  only  sixty-eight  florins  and  twelve 
kreutzers.  To  the  hospital  of  Brothers  of  Charity,  in  the  Leo- 
poldstadt,  and  to  the  great  practical  genius  of  the  Prince's  family 
physician,  named  Von  Quarin,  I  am  indebted  for  my  calling  as 
a  physician.  I  had  his  friendship,  and  I  might  also  say  his  love, 
and  I  was  the  only  one  of  my  age  whom  he  took  with  him  to 
visit  his  private  patients.  He  respected,  loved  and  instructed 
me  as  if  I  had  been  the  first  of  his  pupils,  and  even  more  than 
this,  and  he  did  all  without  expecting  to  receive  any  compensa- 
tion from  me. 

CHAPTER  III. 

AUTOBIOGRAPHY,   CONTINUED. 

My  last  crumbs  of  subsistence  were  just  about  to  vanish  when 
the  Governor  of  Transylvania,  Baron  von  Bruckenthal,  invited 
me  under  honorable  conditions  to  go  with  him  to  Hermanstadt 
as  family  physician  and  custodian  of  his  important  library. 
Here  I  had  the  opportunity  to  learn  several  other  languages 
necessar}'  to  me,  and  to  acquire  some  collateral  knowledge  that 
was  pertinent  and  still  seemed  to  be  lacking  in  me. 

I  arranged  and  catalogued  his  matchless  collection  of  ancient 
coins  as  well  as  his  vast  library,  practiced  medicine  in  this 
populous  city  for  a  year  and  nine  months  and  then  departed, 
although  very  unwillingly,  from  these  honorable  people  to  re- 
ceive at  Erlangen  the  degree  of  doctor  of  medicine,  which  I  was 
then  able  to  do  from  my  own  attainments.  To  the  Privy  Coun- 
cillor, Delius,  and  Councillors  Isenflamm,  Schreber  and  Wendt, 
I  am  indebted  for  many  favors  and  much  instruction. 

Councillor  Schreber  taught  me  what  I  still  lacked  in  Botany. 

On  August  ID,  1779,  I  defended  my  dissertation,  and,  there- 
upon, received  the  honorable  title  of  doctor  of  medicine. 


14  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

The  instinctive  love  of  a  Swiss  for  his  rugged  Alps  cannot  be 
more  irresistible  than  that  of  a  native  of  Saxony  for  his  father- 
land. 

I  went  thither  to  begin  my  career  as  a  practicing  physician  in 
the  mining  town  of  Hettstadt,  in  Mansfield  county.  Here  it  was 
impossible  to  develop  either  inwardly  or  outwardly,  and  I  left 
the  place  for  Dessau  in  the  spring  of  1781,  after  a  sojourn  of  nine 
months.  Here  I  found  a  better  and  more  cultured  society. 
Chemistry  occupied  my  leisure  hours  and  short  trips  made  to 
improve  my  knowledge  of  mining  and  smelting  filled  up  the 
yet  quite  large  dormer  windows  in  my  mind. 

Towards  the  close  of  the  year  1791  I  received  an  insignificant 
call  as  physician  to   Gommern,  near  Magdeburg.     The  size  of  - 
the  town  being  considerable,  I  looked  for  a  better  reception  and 
business  than  I  found  in  the  two  years  and  three-fourths  which 
I  passed  in  this  place. 

There  had  lived  as  yet  no  physician  in  this  little  place  to 
which  I  had  removed,  and  the  people  had  no  idea  concerning 
such  a  person. 

Now  I  began  for  the  first  time  to  taste  the  innocent  joys  of 
home  along  with  the  delights  of  business  in  the  companionship 
of  the  partner  of  my  life,  who  was  the  step-daughter  of  Herr 
Haseler,  an  apothecary  in  Dessau,  and  whom  I  married  imme- 
diately after  entering  upon  the  duties  of  this  position.  Dresden 
was  the  next  place  of  my  sojourn. 

I  played  no  brilliant  role  here,  probably  because  I  did  not 
wish  to  do  so.  However,  I  lacked  here  neither  friends  nor  in- 
struction. The  venerable  Doctor  Wagner,  the  town  physician, 
who  was  a  pattern  of  unswerving  uprightness,  honored  me  with 
his  intimate  friendship,  showed  me  clearly  what  legal  duties  be- 
longed to  the  physician  (for  he  was  master  in  his  art),  and  for  a 
year  delivered  over  to  me  on  account  of  his  illness,  with  the 
magistrate's  consent,  all  of  his  patients  (in  the  town  hospitals), 
a  wide  field  for  a  friend  of  humanity.  Moreover,  the  Superin- 
tendent of  the  Electoral  Library,  Councillor  Adelung,  became 
very  fond  of  me  and,  together  with  the  Librarian,  Dossdorf,  con- 
tributed a  great  deal  towards  making  my  sojourn  interesting  and 
agreeable.  Four  years  thus  elapsed,  more  speedily  to  me  in  the 
bosom  of  my  increasing  family,  than  to  the  unexpected  heir  to 
great  riches,  and  I  went  about  the  time  of  Michaelmas,  1789,  to 


SCHOOL    DAYS.  1 5 

Leipsic,  in  order  to  be  nearer  to  the  fountain  of  science.  Here  I 
quietly  witness  the  Providence  which  Destiny  assigns  to  each  of 
my  days,  the  number  of  which  lies  in  her  hand. 

Four  daughters  and  one  son,  together  with  my  wife,  consti- 
tute the  spice  of  my  life.  In  the  year  1791  the  I^eipsic  Econom- 
ical Society,  and  on  the  second  of  August  of  the  same  year  the 
Electoral  Mayence  Academy  of  Science  elected  me  a  fellow 
member.  Dated  Eeipsic,  August  30,  179 1.  A  foot  note  in  the 
Hildesheim  History  reads:  "Since  1792  Doctor  Hahnemann  has 
lived  as  foreign  resident  in  the  Province  of  Gotha.  He  after- 
wards established  an  institute  for  the  insane  at  Georgenthal  in 
this  province,  but  he  soon  gave  it  up  again.  He  went  to  Pyr- 
mont  in  1794.  (3d  volume,  page  53,  5th  edition  of  S.  Meusel's 
'Germany,'   1797.)"* 


CHAPTER  IV. 

SCHOOL    DAYS. 

The  story  of  the  early  days  of  this  wonderful  man  forms  a  key 
to  all  his  future.  The  poor  German  lad,  whose  father  simply 
desired  for  his  son  the  same  upright,  careful  life,  as  had  been  his 
own,  was  impelled  by  that  irresistible  force  constituting  genius 
to  gain  knowledge  by  every  possible  means,  and  to  satisfy  the 
demands  of  a  mind  eager  to  understand  the  many  wonders  of 
the  world  before  it.  When  Hahnemann  was  five  years  of  age, 
his  father  had  a  habit  of  giving  his  son  what  he  called  "think- 
ing lessons."  Dr.  Hering  mentions  this  several  times  in  his 
writings.  He  says:  "Could  the  father  have  foreseen  the  future 
greatness  of  his  son  ?  But  what  was  it  that  the  father  thought  ? 
It  has  been  made  known  to  us.  While  he  looked  upon  the  son 
so  much  desired,  this  was  the  thought:  'If  that  boy  is  per- 
mitted to  grow  up,  I  will  give  him  lessons  in  thinking.'  As  he 
thought  and  determined,  so  he  acted.  An  old  man  in  Meissen, 
who  had  forgotten  the  son,  when  he  heard  of  his  Jame,  said, 
smilingly,  '  Many  a  time  have  I  taken  a  walk  with  his  father, 
and  ever  at  the  certain  hour  he  would  say :  '  I  must  go  home 
now,  I  have  to  give  a  lesson   to  my  son  Samuel,  a  lesson   in 

*Elwert's  Nachrichten  von  dem  L,eben  und  schrifteu  I'eztlebender 
teutscher  Aerzte.     Hildesheim.     1799. 


l6  LIFE   OF    HAHNEMANN. 

thinking;  that  boy  must  learn  to  think.'  "*  And  the  childhood 
habit  followed  him  through  his  lifetime.  It  must  have  been  a 
very  earnest  desire  for  knowledge,  of  which  Hahnemann  so 
modestly  speaks  in  his  story,  that  would  prompt  the  great  men 
of  the  little  German  village  to  urge  the  unwilling  father  to 
grant  the  means  of  education  to  his  studious  son;  there  must 
have  been  something  vastly  superior  about  the  boy,  when  the 
village  teachers  were  desirous  of  imparting  to  him  knowledge 
without  payment.  Imagine  the  delicate  and  slender  boy  of 
twelve  with  his  earnest  and  pure  face,  teaching  the  rudiments  of 
the  Greek  language  to  the  other  children,  or  talking  enthusiasti- 
cally about  the  "old  writers,"  while  his  good  master,  the  rector, 
"  listened  attentively  and  lovingly"  to  him.  During  the  days 
of  his  boyhood,  Hahnemann  was  in  the  habit  of  taking  frequent 
rambles  over  the  hills  of  his  native  town,  and  during  this  time, 
he  also  formed  an  herbarium  of  the  plants  of  his  beloved  Sax- 
on5\t  It  is  also  related,  that  in  his  father's  house  he  was 
accustomed  to  study  at  night,  long  after  the  rest  of  the  house- 
hold were  in  bed,  by  means  of  a  lamp  fashioned  from  clay,  so 
that  the  light  was  concealed.  Albrecht  says  regarding  this  cir- 
cumstance, in  a  note  to  his  Life  of  Hahnemann :;{:  "  His  father, 
says  a  reliable  witness,  tried  to  prevent  him  from  becoming 
deeply  interested  in  reading  and  study,  and  probably  may  often 
have  wished  to  frighten  him  from  his  books.  The  boy  would 
endeavor  to  hide,  and  would  flee  with  his  beloved  books  to  the 
remotest  nooks  of  the  house.  The  light  there  was  not  always 
sufficient,  for  we  are  told  that  he  made  for  himself  a  lamp  out  of 
clay,  with  which  to  study  in  these  nooks,  because  he  feared  that 
his  father  might  miss  a  light,  and  subsequently  put  a  stop  to 
his  cherished  occupation."  His  studies  while  at  Meissen,  in- 
cluded Latin,  Greek,  Hebrew,  and  history,  physics  and  botany. 
His  favorite  study  was  medical  science. 

When  he  left  the  princely  school  of  Afra  he  presented  a  thesis, 
written  in  Latin,  upon  the  "Wonderful  Construction  of  the 
Human  Hand." 

During  his  student  life  at   Meissen    he  did   not   enjo}'   very 


*Programme  of  Centennial  Celebration  of  Hahnemann's  Birthday,  Phila., 
1855. 

fDudgeon's  Biography  of  Hahnemann,  Loudon,  185 1. 
JAlbrecht's  Hahnemann's  Lebeu  uud  Wirken,  p.  11. 


LIFE    AT    LEIPSIC    AND    VIENNA.  1 7 

robust  health,  and  was  much  favored  by  his  teachers.  It  was  at 
Easter,  1775,  that  with  his  patrimony  of  twenty  thalers  and 
with  letters  from  his  teachers  to  the  professors  at  the  University 
of  Leipsic,  he  set  out  for  that  city.  Regarding  Hahnemann's 
going  to  lycipsic,  Albrecht  saysT-^^  "A  more  accurate  account 
comes  from  a  well-informed  source  who  says:  'His  father  at  first 
put  him  in  a  grocery  store  at  lycipsic.  So  he  was  to  become 
a  merchant.  But  tending  the  store,  however  pleasant  it  might 
have  been,  was  to  the  intellectual  lad  something  dreadful  and 
unendurable.  He  stayed  but  a  very  short  time.  He  left  his 
employer  without  any  foolish  reasons,  merely  following  the  inner 
impulse  to  a  higher  calling,  and  returned  to  his  parents,  although 
dreading  to  meet  his  father.  His  mother,  fearing  the  anger  of 
his  father,  kept  him  hidden  for  several  days,  until  she  had  suc- 
ceeded in  softening  his  father's  heart,  and  reconciling  him  to 
the  wish  of  his  son.  With  such  difficulties  Hahnemann  was 
compelled  to  make  his  own  way  at  the  University  at  Leipzig. " 
A  youth  of  twenty,  born  and  educated  in  a  German  village,  yet 
with  knowledge  of  several  languages,  with  but  twenty  thalers 
with  which  to  face  the  future,  and  yet  with  an  indomitable  de- 
termination to  succeed. 


CHAPTER   V. 

LIFE  AT   LEIPSIC   AND   VIENNA. 

He  began  his  student  life  in  Leipsic  by  attending  lectures 
during  the  day  and  devoting  his  nights  to  translations  from  the 
English  into  the  German;  he  taught  also  German  and  French. 
His  lectures  in  medicine  were  free,  although  it  is  likely  that  his 
numerous  literary  occupations  prevented  him  from  attending 
them  regularly.  In  the  meantime  he  was  carefully  saving  his 
money,  and  preparing  to  go  at  the  end  of  the  two  years  to 
Vienna,  where  the  advantages  for  medical  study  were  much 
greater.  The  small  sum  that  he  had  saved  was  stolen  from  him, 
and  it  is  to  this  that  he  alludes  as  a  "malicious  trick"  in  his 
autobiography.  But  it  is  evident  that  he  forgave,  as  he  never 
disclosed  the  names  of  the  guilt)^  parties,  and  says  that  "repent- 
ance demands  forgiveness." 


*Albrecht's  Leben  und  Wirken,  p.  13. 


l8  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

During  the  sojourn  at  Leipsic  he  translated  the  following 
books,  all  from  the  English:  "John  Stedtmann's  Phj-siological 
Essays,"  "  Nugent  on  Hydrophobia,"  "  Falconer  on  the  Waters 
of  Bath,"  in  two  volumes;  "Ball's  Modern  Practice  of  Physic," 
in  two  volumes;  this  in  addition  to  the  study  of  medicine  and 
teaching. 

In  a  Eeipsic  Homoeopathic  journal  of  1865  was  published  a 
Latin  poem  composed  by  Hahnemann  soon  after  his  arrival  at 
Eeipsic.  It  is  addressed  to  the  distinguished  philologist.  Pro- 
fessor Zeune,  and  bears  date  September  20,  1775,  and  must  have 
been  composed  in  his  twentieth  year.     It  is  as  follows: 

*"M.  Joanni  Carolo  Zeuuio 
Professori  receus  create 
Vota  faciuut 
tres  ejus  auditorum 
Mich.  Christ.  Justus  Eschenbach 
Johannes  Fridericus  Eschenbach 
Christianus  Fridericus  Samuel  Hahnemann,  Autor. 


Quid  cessas  hillari  Pieridum  choro 
Misceri,  Philyrae  docta  cohors  ?  Age  ! 
Celebrate  modis  haucce  diem  bonam. 
Digni  Calliope  diem 

Alumni;  titulos  qui  debitos  diu 
Jam  tandem  senior  (nobilis  o  pudor  !) 
Admittit,  Capitum  nostrae  Academiae 
Non  ignobilium  Decus. 

Penna  Fama,  volans  usque  agit  integra 
Te  Zeuni !  Pietas  cujus  et  ingeni 
Dotes  perpoliuut  perpoliereque 
Nostrum  uive  auimum  rudem. 

Tu  recludens  opes  et  Latiae  bonus 
Et  Grajae,  juvenum  languida  melleo 
Minervae  recreans  munere  pectora, 
Formas  et  Patriae  et  Deo. 

A.  D.  XX  Septembris,  MDCCLXXV  :  Lepsiae. 
Ex  officina  Buttneria." 

Not  SO  bad  for  a  village  youth  of  twenty  years  ! 

But  the  knowledge  of  medicine  that  he  was  able  to  obtain  in 

*Brit.Jl.  Horn.,  Vol.  23,  p.  489.    Allg.  Horn.  Zcituug,  February  13,  1865, 
Vol.  22,  p.  128. 


LIFE    AT    HERMANSTx\DT.  1 9 

Leipsic  was  not  so  extensiv^e  as  he  desired,  and  his  thoughts 
turned  towards  the  great  medical  school  at  Vienna;  and  in  the 
spring  of  1777  he  departed  for  that  place.  It  must  have  been 
soon  after  his  arrival  that  he  was  robbed,  or  in  some  manner  de- 
frauded of  his  savings,  so  that  for  nine  months  he  was  compelled 
to  live  on  the  small  sum  of  sixty-eight  florins. 

In  one  quarter  of  Vienna,  known  as  the  Leopoldstadt,  there 
was  a  very  extensive  hospital  conducted  by  the  Brothers  of 
Charity,  and  in  this  Hahnemann  received  instruction  under  the 
guidance  of  the  celebrated  doctor,  Von  Quarin.  Freiherr  Von 
Ouarin  was  body  physician  to  Maria  Theresa  and  the  Emperor 
Joseph,  he  filled  six  times  the  post  of  rector  of  the  University  of 
Vienna.*  In  fact,  Von  Quarin  was  so  impressed  by  the  ability 
■of  his  student  that  he  made  him  his  especial  protege,  taking 
him  to  visit  private  patients,  a  thing  he  had  never  before  done. 
Throughout  his  life  Hahnemann  spoke  of  Dr.  Von  Quarin  with 
great  friendship,  and  credited  to  his  influence  the  fact  that  he 
had  been  able  to  gratify  his  ambition  and  become  a  physician. 

At  Vienna  he  did  no  translating,  but  devoted  himself  entirely 
to  acquiring  the  principles  of  medicine,  and  to  his  studies  in  the 
hospital. 

But  his  little  hoard  at  last  gave  out,  and  he  was  reluctantly 
<:ompelled  to  tell  his  benefactor  of  his  inability  to  continue  his 
studies.  As  he  so  quaintly  expresses  it :  "  My  last  crumbs  of 
comfort  were  just  about  to  vanish."  Nine  months  of  the  de- 
lightful student-life  had  exhausted  all  his  means.  Then  Von 
Quarin  came  to  his  aid  and  secured  for  him  the  position  of 
family  physician  and  librarian  to  the  Baron  von  Bruckenthal, 
-who  was  the  Governor  of  Siebenburgen  and  who  lived  in  the 
city  of  Hermanstadt. 

CHAPTER  VI. 

LIFE  AT  HERMANS'TADT — GRADUATION  AT  ERLANGEN — RETURN 
TO  SAXONY — DESSAU. 

It  must  have  been  about  the  close  of  the  year  1777  that  Hahne- 
mann went  to  Hermanstadt.  Here  he  was  far  away  from  every- 
thing that  could  distract  his  mind  from  study.  He  passed  the 
greater  portion  of  his  time  in  the  valuable  library  of  his  patron. 

*Ameke,  p.  58. 


20  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

He  gained  some  knowledge  of  numismatics,  and  classified  and 
arranged  the  "matchless  collection  of  ancient  coins"  that  he 
found  there.  He  carefully  catalogued  Baron  Bruckenthal's  im- 
mense library  of  books  and  rare  manuscripts.  It  was  during  the 
quiet,  scholarly  days,  in  the  secluded  library  at  Hermanstadt, 
that  he  acquired  that  extensive  and  diverse  knowledge  of  ancient 
literature,  and  of  occult  sciences,  of  which  he  afterwards  proved 
himself  to  be  a  master,  and  with  which  he  astonished  the  scien- 
tific world. 

He  learned  also  several  languages,  and  must  have  given  much 
time  to  philology.  When  he  left  Hermanstadt,  at  the  age  of 
twenty- two  years,  he  was  master  of  Greek,  Ivatin,  English, 
Italian,  Hebrew,  Syriac,  Arabic,  Spanish,  German,  and  some 
smattering  of  Chaldaic.  It  is  said  that  when  he  wished  to 
understand  anything  in  a  language  with  which  he  was  not 
familiar  heat  once  commenced  the  systematic  study  of  that  lan- 
guage. Here  he  was  unwittingly  preparing  himself  for  his  great 
future. 

He  remained  in  this  hospitable  haven  for  one  year  and  nine 
months,  when  he  was  able  to  gratify  his  desire  to  obtain  the 
degree  of  physician. 

In  the  spring  of  1779  he  bade  a  reluctant  good-by  to  his  good 
friend,  the  Baron,  and  to  the  delights  of  his  library,  and  departed 
for  the  Universit}'  of  Erlangen.  Here  he  attended  the  lectures  of 
Delius,  Isenflamm,  Wendt  and  Schreber.  He  expresses  himself 
greatly  indebted  to  Schreber  for  instruction  in  botany.* 

He  had  been  nearly  ready  to  graduate,  when  his  poverty 
compelled  him  to  leave  Vienna,  and  after  listening  for  a  few 
months  to  the  lectures  of  the  above  mentioned  professors,  he 
presented  himself  for  graduation.  He  chose  Erlangen  for  his 
place  of  graduation  because  the  fees  were  less  than  at  Leipsic. 

He  defended  his  thesis  successfully,  on  the  loth  of  August, 
1779,  receiving  his  degree  as  doctor  of  medicine.  The  subject 
of  this  thesis  was,  "A  Consideration  of  the  Etiology  and  Thera- 
peutics of  Spasmodic  Affections."  It  was  published  at  Erlangen 
in  1779,  as  a  quarto  of  twenty  pages. 

After  Hahnemann  had  obtained  his  medical  degree  his  first 


*It  has  been  said  by  one  of  Hahnemann's  detractors  that  he  received  the 
degree  at  Erlangen  "in  absentia."  This  is  not  true;  he  attended  this  Uni- 
versity and  was  present  at  his  graduation. 


LIFE   AT   HERMANSTADT.  2  1 

thought  was  for  the  hills  of  his  beloved  Saxony,  and  thither  he 
at  once  journeyed. 

He  located  in  the  little  town  of  Hettstadt,  on  the  river 
Whipper,  situated  nine  miles  from  Eisleben,  the  capital  of  Mans- 
field county,  and  devoted  to  copper  mining.  The  place  was 
very  small,  and  the  young  doctor  had  but  little  to  do  profession- 
ally, and  remained  but  nine  months,  going  thence  in  the  spring 
of  1 78 1  to  Dessau.  Hahnemann  says  in  his  autobiography  that 
he  left  Hettstadt  in  the  spring  time  (Fruhling)  of  1781,  after  a 
stay  of  nine  months.  He  graduated  in  August,  1779,  and  there 
is  no  account  of  his  whereabouts  from  August,  1779,  to  the  time 
of  his  arrival  at  Hettstadt,  which  must  have  been  in  the  summer 
of  1780.  It  is  known  that  Hahnemann  at  this  period  of  his 
life  practiced  medicine  for  a  time  in  several  towns  of  Lower 
Hungary.  On  page  114,  vol.  2  of  the  translation  of  Cullen's 
Materia  Medica,  Hahnemann,  in  a  foot  note,  speaking  of  the  In- 
termittents  of  marshy  countries,  says:  "  CuUen  is  wrong;  he 
seems  to  have  been  unacquainted  with  the  stubborn  intermit- 
tents  of  hot,  fenny  countries.  I  observed  such  in  Lower  Hun- 
gary, more  particularly  in  the  fortified  places  of  that  country, 
which  owe  their  impregnability  to  the  extensive  marshes  around 
them.  I  saw  such  in  Carlstadt,  Raab,  Gomorrn,  Temeswar,  Her- 
manstadt."  May  it  not  be  probable  that  the  missing  year  was 
spent  in  these  places?  Dr.  J.  C.  Burnett  in  "  Hahnemann  as  a 
Man  and  as  a  Physician,"  London,  1881,  page  22,  thinks  the 
sojourn  in  Hungary  was  previous  to  graduation,  and  that  he  did 
not  remain  for  a  year  and  nine  months  at  Herraanstadt,  but 
Hahnemann  distinctly  says  that  he  did  remain  there  for  that 
length  of  time  At  Dessau,  on  the  Mulda,  Hahnemann  met  more 
congenial  society,  and  also  succeeded  in  gaining  some  practice. 
Here  he  first  turned  his  attention  to  chemistry,  of  which  he 
was  destined  to  become  one  of  the  most  skillful  exponents,  and 
of  whose  skill  that  greatest  of  chemists,  Berzelius,  afterwards 
said:  "That  man  would  have  made  a  great  chemist,  had  he 
not  turned  out  a  great  quack."  He  was  also  accustomed  to 
take  long  geological  walks;  he  visited  the  mines  in  the  vicinity 
and  learned  much  about  practical  mining  and  smelting,  that  he 
afterwards  used  in  his  writings  on  these  subjects.  As  he  so 
naively  says:  "I  thus  filled  up  the  yet  quite  large  dormer 
windows  of  my  mind."     He  became  a  regular  visitor  at  the 


22  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

laboratory  ot  the  apothecary  Haseler,  where  he  was  enabled  to 
perfect  himself  in  practical  pharmacy  and  chemistry.  And 
here  he  met  his  future  wife. 

CHAPTER  VII. 

MARRIAGE — LIFE    AT    GOMMERN — UNCERTAINTY — FIRST    ORIGI- 
NAL  WORK. 

Apothecary  Haseler  succeeded  apothecary  Kuchler  in  busi- 
ness at  Dessau,  and  he  also  married  his  widow,  who  was  blessed 
with  a  young  and  charming  daughter;  and  the  young  doctor  and 
chemist  discovered  in  her  the  beloved  "  Elise  "  of  many  long 
and  trial-filled  years.  Hahnemann's  term  of  endearment  for  his 
wife  was  the  name  Elise,  and  it  frequently  occurs  in  his  letters 
to  her.  But  our  young  genius  was  poor,  and  in  order  that  he 
might  soon  marry,  he  obtained  the  position  of  parish  doctor  at 
Gommern,  removing  to  that  place  in  the  latter  part  of  1781. 
Gommern  is  a  small  town,  only  a  few  miles  from  Magdeburg, 
and  Hahnemann  was  the  first  physician  who  had  ever  been  set- 
tled there.  Hahnemann  was  married  to  Miss  Kuchler  in  the 
latter  part  of  1782.  The  registry  of  St.  John's  church  in  Dessau 
contains  the  following  entry:*  "On  the  ist  of  December,  1782, 
Mr.  Samuel  Hahnemann,  Dr.  Med.,  Electoral  Saxon  parish  doc- 
tor in  Gommern,  twenty-eight  years  old,  eldest  legitimate  son  of 
Mr.  Christian  Gottfried  Hahnemann,  artistic  painter  in  the  por- 
celain manufactory  of  Meissen,  and  of  his  wife,  Johanna  Chris- 
tiana, was  married  to  spinster  Johanna  Henrietta  Leopoldiua 
Kuchler,  nineteen  years  old,  only  legitimate  daughter  of  the  late 
Godfried  Henry  Kuchler,  and  of  his  wife,  Martha  Sophia,  in  St. 
John's  Church  here." 

He  settled  at  once  in  Gommern  and  commenced  the  practice 
of  his  position.  He  had  just  been  appointed  to  it  at  the  time  of 
his  marriage.     He  also  resumed  his  literary  work. 

At  the  end  of  17S3  or  the  first  of  1784  the  eldest  child,  Hen- 
rietta, was  born. 

It  was  while  living  at  Gommern  that  Hahnemann  translated, 
from  the  French,  the  chemist  Demachy's  Art  of  Manufacturing 
Chemical  Products. f     Demachy  was  one  of  the  first  chemists  of 


*  British  Journal  Homceopathy .    Vol.  36,  p.  259. 

tSee  Ameke's  History  of  Homoeopath}',  p.  8.     tSalt  of  Amber. 


MARRIAGE — LIFE    AT    GOMMERN.  23 

the  day,  and  the  French  Academy  had  published  his  book  in 
order  that  the  people  of  France  might  learn  the  various  processes 
of  the  manufacture  of  chemical  productions  heretofore  for  the 
most  part  kept  carefully  as  trade  secrets  by  the  manufacturers, 
especially  by  the  Dutch.  Hahnemann,  by  his  translations  into 
the  German,  rendered  a  like  service  to  his  fellow-countrymen. 
About  the  time  he  completed  his  translation  a  new  one  was  is- 
sued by  the  chemist  Struve,  of  Berne,  with  additions.  Hahne- 
mann added  Struve' s  additions  or  comments  to  his  own  transla- 
tion, at  the  same  time  making  copious  and  original  notes  on 
them.  Examination  of  the  notes  in  this  book  reveals  the 
marvellous  chemical  knowledge  of  the  young  translator.  He 
quotes  exhaustively  from  many  authors,  in  many  cases 
corrects  mistakes.  He  cites  ten  authors  on  the  preparation 
of  the  antimonials,  quotes  works  on  lead,  quicksilver,  cam- 
phor, succinic  acid,|  borax.  Where  Demachy  remarks  that  he 
knows  no  work  on  carbonification  of  turf,  Hahnemann  mentions 
six.  Demachy  quotes  a  French  analyist  without  giving  his  name, 
but  Hahnemann  gives  not  only  the  author's  name,  but  also  the 
name  of  his  book.  Demachy  mentions  a  celebrated  German 
physician.  Hahnemann  gives  his  name,  his  book,  and  the  par- 
ticular passage  in  question.  On  every  page  his  notes  appear. 
He  gives  new  directions  for  making  retorts;  is  well  acquainted 
with  the  manufacture  of  chemicals  in  the  different  countries; 
corrects  the  mistakes  of  Demachy  regarding  the  use  of  alum  in 
Russia,  Sweden,  Germany,  Italy,  Sicily  and  Smyrna.  He  un- 
derstands the  use  of  pit  coal  in  England  and  in  the  Province  of 
Saarbruck.  He  introduces  many  original  chemical  improve- 
ments and  tests.  Crell,  in  his  Amialen,  the  chemical  journal  of 
that  day,  says:  "We  can  affirm  that  no  more  complete  treatise 
exists  on  the  subject  of  the  manufacture  of  chemicals  than  this 
work."  This  valuable  book,  in  two  volumes,  was  published  in 
1784,  in  Leipsic.  In  1785  he  published,  also  at  Eeipsic,  a  trans- 
lation of  Demachy's  Art  of  Distilling  Liquor;  also  in  two  vol- 
umes, Westrumb,  writing  in  Crell's  Annalen,  in  1792,  thus 
speaks  of  this  book:  "Few  manufacturers  have  listened  to  my 
suggestions  to  arrange  their  retorts  as  Demachy  and  Hahnemann 
describe.  Distillers  should  entirely  reject  the  old  distillery  ap- 
paratus and  should  use  the  French  arrangement,  clearly  de- 
scribed by  Hahnemann." 


24  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

While  living  at  Gommern  he  also  published  some  medical 
essays  in  the  second  volume  of  Kreb's  Journal,  and  several  trans- 
lations from  the  English  and  Latin  in  Weygand's  Journal.  Also 
an  original  book  on  the  treatment  of  scrofulous  sores,  published 
at  Leipsic,  in  1784. 

This  was  his  first  original  medical  work.  Even  at  this  early 
period  Hahnemann  was  not  quite  satisfied  with  the  methods  of 
medical  practice.  He  says  in  this  book:  "  This  much  is  true, 
and  it  may  make  us  more  modest,  that  almost  all  our  knowledge 
of  the  curative  powers  of  simple  and  natural  as  well  as  artificial 
substances  is  mainly  derived  from  the  rude  and  automatic  pro- 
cedures of  the  common  people,  and  that  the  wise  physician  often 
draws  conclusions  from  the  effects  of  the  so-called  dome.stic  rem- 
edies which  are  of  inestimable  importance  to  him."  The  book 
was  largely  the  result  of  his  experience  in  Transylvania,  and  he 
quite  frankly  says  that  his  patients  would  probably  have  done 
better  without  him.*  At  this  time,  when  very  little  attention 
was  paid  to  hygiene,  Hahnemann  devoted  considerable  space  to 
it.  He  recommends  exercise  and  open  air,  the  benefit  of  a  change 
of  climate  and  of  the  seashore,  the  value  of  cold  water  as  a 
remedial  agent.  In  speaking  of  the  treatment  of  a  caries  of 
one  of  the  metatarsal  bones  he,  after  giving  the  dressing  he 
used,  says:  "I  scraped  the  carious  bone  clean  out,  and  removed 
all  the  dead  part,  dressed  it  with  alcohol  and  watched  the  re- 
sult." This  book  was  received  with  much  praise  by  the  profes- 
sion, f 

CHAPTER  Vin. 

DISSATISFACTION   WITH   MODE   OF  PRACTICE — LETTER   TO  HUFE- 

LAND — HUFELAND  ON  HOMCEOPATHY — MEDICAL 

ANARCHY  OF  THE  TIME. 

Hahnemann  remained  at  Gommern  for  two  years  and  nine 
months.  During  this  time  his  practice  was  not  large  nor  did  he 
seem  to  make  much  effort  to  increase  it,  preferring  to  devote 
himself  to  his  translations  and  studies.  His  position  as  parish 
doctor,  with  his  translations,  supported  him  and  his  increasing 
family.     But  he  was  a  sincere  man  and  was  greatly  dissatisfied 

*  Dudgeon's  "Life  of  Hahnemann,"  1854. 
fAmeke.     "History  of  Homoeopathy,"  p.  59. 


DISSATISFIED   WITH    MODE    OF   PRACTICE.  25 

with  the  vague  and  iinsatisfactor}^  medical  knowledge  of  the  day. 
Perhaps  in  no  better  way  can  his  feelings  on  the  subject  be  de- 
scribed than  by  presenting  a  letter  written  to  Hufeland  regard- 
ing this  period.  This  letter  is  published  in  L,esser  Writings 
under  the  title:  "  Letter  to  a  Physician  of  High  Standing  on  the 
Great  Necessitj^  of  a  Regeneration  in  Medicine."*  "It  was 
agony  for  me  to  walk  always  in  darkness,  with  no  other  light 
than  that  which  could  be  derived  from  books,  when  I  had  to 
heal  the  sick,  and  to  prescribe,  according  to  such  or  such  an 
hypothesis  concerning  diseases,  substances  which  owed  their 
place  in  the  Materia  Medica  to  an  arbitrary  decision.  I  could 
not  conscientiously  treat  the  unknown  morbid  conditions  of  my 
suffering  brethren  by  these  unknown  medicines,  which  being 
very  active  substances,  may  (unless  applied  with  the  most  rigor- 
ous exactness,  which  the  physician  can  not  exercise,  because 
their  peculiar  eflfects  have  not  yet  been  examined)  so  easily  oc- 
casion death,  or  produce  new  affections  and  chronic  maladies, 
often  more  difficult  to  remove  than  the  original  disease.  To 
become  thus  the  murderer  or  the  tormentor  of  my  brethren  was 
to  me  an  idea  so  frightful  and  overwhelming,  that  soon  after 
my  marriage,  I  renounced  the  practice  of  medicine,  that  I 
might  no  longer  incur  the  risk  of  doing  injury,  and  I  engaged 
exclusively  in  chemistry,  and  in  literary  occupations.  But  I  be- 
came a  father,  serious  diseases  threatened  my  beloved  children,  my 
flesh  and  blood.  M}^  scruples  redoubled  when  I  saw  that  I  could 
afford  them  no  certain  relief."  He  continues  in  telling  Hufeland 
his  feelings  regarding  the  uncertainty  of  medical  practice,  and 
says  that  he  felt  sure  that  God  must  have  ordained  some  certain 
method  of  healing  the  sick.  The  Rev.  Thos.  Everest,  in  a  let- 
ter to  Dr.  Rose  Cormack,  saysif 

"After  passing  through  the  usual  studies  with  great  credit 
to  himself  he  took  his  degree  and  began  to  practice  as  a  medical 
man.  It  soon  struck  me,  he  said  to  me,  that  I  was  called  upon 
to  admit  in  the  practice  of  medicine  a  great  deal  that  was  not 
proved.  If  I  was  called  to  attend  a  patient  I  was  to  collect  his 
symptoms,  and  next  to  infer  from  these  symptoms  that  a  certain 
internal  condition  of  the  organs  existed,  and  then  to  select  such 

*Brii.  Jou}'.  Horn.,  Vol.  i,  p.  105.  Lesser  Writings,  New  York.  All£-. 
Anzeiger,  July  14,  1808. 

tRussell's  "  Homceopathy  in  1851,"  p.  305. 


26  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

a  remedy  as  the  medical  authorities  asserted  would  be  useful 
under  such  circumstances.  But  it  is  very  evident  that  the  argu- 
ment is  most  inconclusive  and  that  room  was  thus  left  for  many 
serious  errors,  and  so  I  determined  to  investigate  the  whole  mat- 
ter for  myself  from  the  very  beginning. ' ' 

Hufeland,  whom  Hahnemann  calls  the  Nestor  of  Medicine, 
was  always  a  friend  to  Hahnemann.  He  allowed  him  to  pub- 
lish his  new  opinions  in  his  Medical  Journal.  When,  in  1826 
and  in  1830,  Hufeland  himself  wrote  an  essay  on  Homoeopathy, 
which  he  published  in  his  journal,  he  was  honest  and  fair  to 
Hahnemann  in  his  deductions.  He  says  :*  "I  was  first  induced 
to  notice  Homoeopathy,  because  I  deemed  it  undignified  to  treat 
the  new  system  with  ridicule  and  contempt.  Besides  I  had  a 
long  time  esteemed  the  author  for  his  earlier  productions,  and 
for  his  sterling  contributions  to  the  science  of  medicine;  and  I 
had  also  observed  the  names  of  several  respectable  men,  who,  in 
no  way  blinded  by  prejudice,  had  recognized  the  facts  of  the 
science  as  true.  I  need  only  enumerate  President  Von  Wolf, 
of  Warsaw;  Medical  Councillor  Rau,  of  Giessen,  and  Medical 
Councillor  Widmann,  of  Munich.  I  then  made  several  success- 
ful experiments  with  Homoeopathic  medicine,  which  necessarily 
still  further  excited  my  attention  to  the  subject,  and  favourably 
convinced  me  that  Homoeopathia  could  not  be  thrown  aside  with 
contempt,  but  was  worthy  of  a  rigid  investigation." 

Hufeland  then  in  a  dispassionate  and  careful  manner  discusses 
the  question  at  length;  predicts  the  gradual  amalgamation  of  the 
more  liberal  members  of  the  two  schools;  and  says  in  closing, 
that :  "  The  peculiar  and  important  problem  for  Homoeopathy  is 
to  search  for  and  find  new  specific  medicines." 

"  At  this  period,"  saysRapou,t  "there  was  a  complete  anarchy 
in  the  domain  of  therapeutics.  Theories  Hippocratico-vitalistic, 
Galenic,  Mathematical,  Chemical,  Humoral,  Electro-Galvanic, 
formed  an  inextricable  tissue  of  variable  opinions.  Hahnemann 
had  abstained  from  a  search  for  therapeutical  indications  in  this 
mass  of  hazardous  theories.  He  had  adopted  a  simple  medica- 
tion, partly  expectant,  that  corresponded  more  fully  with  his 
ideal  of  the  art  of  healing. 


*BritishJotir7ial  Homoeopathy.     Vol.  16,  p.  179. 

tHistoire  de  la  doctrine  medicale  Honieopathique,  Paris,  1S47.     Vol.  2, 
P-  295- 


GOMMERN.  27 


CHAPTER  IX. 

OOMMERN — LIFE    AT    DRESDEN — LITERARY    WORK — THE    WINE 
TEST — SLUMBER   SONG. 

Hahnemann  now  used  only  the  remedies  called  "specifics," 
whose  effects  were  in  a  measure  known.  Their  physiological 
action  was,  however,  but  little  understood.  The  schools  were 
not  in  accord.  One  school  would  prescribe  for  a  given  disease  a 
drug  that  another  would  unreservedly  repudiate.  It  was  known 
that  a  certain  drug  in  a  certain  case  would  produce  a  certain 
effect.  But  the  combination  of  drugs  in  vogue  prevented  this 
property  from  being  perfectly  ascertained.  His  dissatisfaction 
increased.  He  looked  to  the  medical  knowledge  of  the  day  for 
a  reliable  method  of  curing  his  patients,  and  met  nothing  but 
•doubt  and  disappointment.* 

One  can  readily  understand  that  to  Hahnemann,  the  trans- 
lator, the  philologist,  accustomed  to  the  arbitrary  rules  govern- 
ing language,  this  laxity  and  confusion  in  the  laws  of  medicine 
must  have  been  a  continual  source  of  annoyance. 

I^et  it  be  borne  in  mind  that  he  was  a  thoroughly  well-posted 
physician,  skilled  both  in  theory  and  practice,  better  read  in  the 
various  notions  of  the  medical  books  of  the  time  than  most  of  his 
fellows.  Besides,  his  position  as  "  Stadtphysikus  "  was  an  in- 
fluential one.f  In  Germany  the  pharmaceutical  chemists  are 
under  the  control  and  supervision  of  a  medical  ofi&cer  called  the 
'''Stadtphysikus,"  who  must  necessarily  be  a  well-posted  medical 
man.  He  visits  the  chemists'  shops  and  drug  stores  of  his 
neighborhood  at  stated  intervals  to  inspect  the  drugs.  The  fact 
of  his  holding  this  position  is  proof  enough  of  his  ability  as  a 
physician. 

He  was  also  a  surgeon;  his  treatment  of  necrosis  by  scraping 
the  bone  proves  that.  He  was  a  prominent  physician  of  the 
time,  and  yet  we  find  him  honestly  saying,  so  little  confidence 
had  he  in  the  prevailing  methods,  that  most  of  his  patients 
would  have  done  as  well  without  his  aid. 

The  inconsistencies  and  fallacies  of  the  day  fell  so  far  below 
liis  ideal  of  a  possible  healing  art  that  he  was  loath  to  continue 
in  practice.     He  had  dear  ones  depending  upon  his  labors,  and 

*Hom.  World,  Vol.  X.,  p.  132.     fBumett's  "Ecce  Medicus,"  p.  133. 


28  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN, 

his  position  as  health  officer  gave  him  a  certain  means  of 
support,  and  on  the  other  hand,  he  was  a  conscientious  man, 
and  remembered  the  teachings  of  his  good  father,  never  to  ac- 
cept anything  in  science  until  it  had  been  proven  to  be  true  by- 
investigation.  After  some  time  of  doubt  his  honesty  won  the 
battle,  and  he  resolved  to  investigate  for  himself;  to  discover  if 
God  had  not  indeed  given  some  certain  law  by  means  of  which 
the  diseases  of  mankind  could  be  cured  with  certainty. 

Although  his  heart  was  absorbed  in  the  desire  to  do  good,  and 
his  love  for  medical  science  was  very  great,  his  ideas  of  right 
prevented  him  from  continuing  longer  in  practice. 

Consequently  he  resigned  his  position  at  Gommern,  in  the 
autumn  of  1784.  He,  in  his  autobiography,  says  that  he 
located  at  Gommern  towards  the  close  of  the  year  1781,  and 
that  he  remained  there  for  two  and  three  quarter  years,  marrying 
soon  after  entering  upon  his  duties  as  town  doctor.  The  parish 
register  of  Dessau  gives  December,  1782,  as  the  time  of  his 
marriage;  Albrecht  also  mentions  1782,  as  the  bridal  year. 
According  to  this,  Hahnemann  must  have  been  at  Gommern 
for  some  months  before  his  wedding  occurred.  Living  two 
years  and  nine  months  at  Gommern,  he  must  have  departed  for 
Dresden  in  the  fall  of  1784, 

It  has  been  asserted  that  Hahnemann  was  compelled  to  relin- 
quish at  this  time  the  practice  of  medicine,  because  he  was 
unable  to  earn  a  living.  This,  however,  is  not  true.  He  had 
the  important  position  of  town  physician,  with  its  certain  in- 
come; he  had  also  other  practice  until  he  absolutely  refused  to 
treat  those  who  had  long  been  his  patients,  and  besides  this  his 
translations  brought  him  in  a  further  sum.  Had  he  wished  he 
could  have  remained  in  Gommern,  for  means  for  his  ample  living 
were  assured.  According  to  the  statements  made  by  his  contem- 
poraries and  by  himself,  he  resigned  his  position,  and  left  Gom- 
mern simply  because  he  had  become  disgusted  with  the  errors 
and  uncertainties  of  the  prevalent  methods  of  medical  practice, 
and  wished  earnestly  to  seek  for  some  better  method.  He  re- 
duced himself  and  his  family  to  want  for  conscience  sake.* 

Despite  the  perplexities  of  his  professional  life,  Hahnemann 
enjoyed  a  happy  home  life;  he  had  his  young  wife  and  his 
little  Henrietta  to  gladden  his  heart.     That  he  was  a  tender  and 

*  "  Ecce  Medicus,"  p.  40. 


GOMMERN.  29 

affectionate    father,    is  well  shown    by   the    following   slumber 
song,  or  lullaby,  which  he  composed  for  his  baby,  while  living 
at  Gommern.     It  may  thus  be  translated,  and  still  retain  all  the 
sweetness  and  force  of  the  original  German  : 
Sleep  daughter,  gently  ! 
The  yellow  bird  chirps  in  the  wood; 
Lightly  it  jumps  o'er  the  ice  and  the  snow, 
And  quietly  sleeps  on  bare  branches — so. 
Gently  sleep.* 

As  has  been  stated,  Hahnemann  located  at  Dresden  in  the 
autumn  of  1784;  he  remained  in  that  city  until  the  time  of 
Michaelmas  (last  of  September),  1789.  Dudgeon  says  that  the 
latter  portion  of  this  time,  he  passed  in  the  village  of  L,ockowitz, 
near  Dresden. f 

The  change  from  the  dead  and  alive  Gommern,  whose  inhabi- 
tants never  before  had  a  doctor  and  did  not  wish  for  one,  to  mag- 
nificent Dresden,  the  home  of  the  arts  and  sciences,  must  have 
been,  to  our  scholar,  very  delightful,  Dresden,  at  this  period, 
was  a  fortified  city,  the  residence  of  the  Elector  of  Saxony,  and 
contained  many  handsome  buildings,  among  which  were  the 
Elector's  palace;  the  great  cathedral;  the  gallery  of  paintings, 
rich  in  the  masterpieces  of  Correggio;  the  Academy  of  Archi- 
tecture, Sculpture  and  Painting;  and  many  fine  private  mansions. 

There  was  also  a  Japanese  palace,  which  was  a  vast  museum 
of  valuable  articles  of  virtu,  among  its  treasures  being  a  collec- 
tion of  foreign  and  Saxon  china  and  porcelain.  The  first  and 
second  stories  of  this  palace  were  devoted  to  the  Electoral 
Eibrary,  that  had  been  made  up  of  several  smaller  collections 
and  at  the  time  of  which  we  write  contained  some  140,000  vol- 
umes. This  library  was  one  of  the  richest  in  Germany  in  histori- 
cal and  antiquarian  works. 

Dresden,  with  its  wealth  and  culture,  with  its  massive  bridge 
spanning  the  swift-flowing  Elbe  and  uniting  the  old  and  new 
town — princely  Dresden,  gave  to  Hahnemann  ample  opportun- 
ity for  the  life  of  scholarly  delights  that  he  had  so  greatly 
desired. 

He  did  not  practice  medicine,  but  devoted  himself  to  his  trans- 
lations from  the  French,  English  and  Italian.  He  also  pursued 
with  renewed  zeal  the  study  of  his  favorite  chemistry.     He  be- 

*"Biographisches  Deukmal,"  p.  iii.  f  "  Biography  of  Hahnemann," 
1854,  p.  21. 


30  LIFE   OF    HAHNEMANN. 

came  a  very  great  friend  of  the  town  physician,  one  Dr.  Wagner, 
who  gave  him  valuable  assistance  in  the  study  of  medical  juris- 
prudence, introduced  him  to  the  hospital,  and,  on  account  of  his 
own  illness,  obtained  magisterial  consent  to  his  appointment  to  the 
charge  of  the  town  hospitals  for  a  year,  placing  all  the  infirmaries 
under  his  charge.  It  must  be  remembered  that  the  Hahnemann 
who  was  chosen  to  take  the  place  for  the  time  of  the  highest 
medical  officer  in  that  country  was  no  unknown  young  physician. 
He  was  well  known  to  the  world  of  medicine  and  of  science;  his 
chemical  researches  and  his  masterly  translations  of  scientific 
books  had  also  spread  his  fame  beyond  his  own  country. 

He  also  formed  the  friendship  of  the  celebrated  philologist, 
John  Christopher  Adelung,  the  superintendent  of  the  Electoral 
Library.  There  was  much  similarity  of  thought  between  these 
distinguished  scholars.  But  a  short  time  before  Adelung  had 
resigned  a  position  of  honor  at  Erfurt  for  opinion's  sake,  as 
Hahnemann  had  for  a  like  reason  just  done  at  Gommern.*  Like 
Hahnemann,  Adelung  was  a  man  of  great  industry;  he  possessed 
a  vast  knowledge  of  languages,  had  composed  much,  and  was  a 
close  student,  devoting  himself,  it  is  said,  for  fourteen  hours 
daily  to  study.  To  show  the  extent  of  his  learning  it  may  be 
mentioned  that  he  was  the  compiler  of  a  book  in  five  large  vol- 
umes, Berlin,  1806-17,  which  is  a  history  of  all  the  known  lan- 
guages and  dialects  of  the  world,  with  an  account  of  all  the 
books  printed  in  or  relating  to  them;  it  is  known  as  the  "  Mithri- 
dates"  of  Adelung. 

The  use  of  this  extensive  library,  which  his  friend  Adelung 
granted  freely  to  Hahnemann,  was  of  great  benefit  in  his  studies. 
Dassdorf,  the  librarian,  also  became  his  friend  and  greatly  as- 
sisted him.  During  this  delightful  literary  life  Hahnemann  met 
the  author  and  experimentalist  Blumenbach,  and  the  brilliant 
but  ill-fated  chemist  Lavoisier,  who  in  the  reign  of  terror  at 
Paris  became  a  victim  to  the  guillotine. 

Happy  in  the  congenial  company  of  these  talented  men,  at 
home  in  the  quietness  of  the  great  library,  with  all  his  desires 
for  knowledge  gratified,  the  four  years  of  Dresden  life  passed 
very  speedily. 

His  son  Frederick  was  born  in  Dresden,  in  1786;  and  his  sec- 
ond daughter,  Wilhelmina. 

*"  Biography  of  Hahnetuan,"  Horn.  World,  Vol.  10.  p.  134. 


GOMMERN.  3r- 

Here  lie  made  the  following  important  translations: 

In  1787,  Demachy's  "Art  of  Manufacturing  Vinegar,"  from 
the  French;  in  this  giving  many  original  notes  and  an  original 
appendix.  The  same  year  he  made  another  French  translation, 
on  the  "Detection  of  the  Purity  and  Adulteration  of  Drugs,"  by 
J.  B.  Van  den  Sande.  Van  den  Sande  was  an  apothecary  at 
Brussels,  who  had  in  1784,  published  a  book  with  the  above  title. 

Hahnemann,  in  translating  it  into  the  German  so  added  to, 
and  amended  it  that  the  main  part  really  was  his  work.  All 
Hahnemann's  directions  are  as  usual  complete  and  careful.. 
His  tests  for  drugs  are  concise  and  correct.  He  introduces 
many  new  discoveries  and  suggestions  for  the  detection  of 
adulteration.  He  shows  also  earnest  efforts  to  determine  the 
limits  of  the  activity  of  substances  and  their  solubilit3^  In  all 
his  suggestions  he  is  exceedingly  accurate.  He  complains  of 
the  untrustworthiness  of  pharmaceutical  preparations  "which 
no  conscientious  doctor  could  prescribe,"  and  asks,  "on  what 
can  a  doctor  rely?"  He  imparts  many  important  chemical 
discoveries.  It  is  in  this  publication  that  he  first  gives  his 
celebrated  wine  test.  Wine  was  often  sweetened  by  the  addition 
of  sugar  of  lead  which  caused  colics,  emaciation  and  death. 
The  Wirtemberg  wine  test,  in  use  at  this  time,  was  very  un- 
certain; and  by  it  iron  and  lead  could  not  be  distinguished. 
After  exhaustively  discussing  the  subject,  he  presents  the 
following:  "Acidulated  sulphureted  hydrogen  water  precipi- 
tates arsenic,  lead,  antimony,  silver,  mercury,  copper,  tin  and 
bismuth,  present  in  a  suspected  fluid.  By  the  addition  of  the 
acid,  metals  of  the  iron  group  to  be  tested  remain  in  solution." 

This  is  Hahnemann's  wine  test,  and  is  to-day  used  in  the 
laboratory  of  the  chemist  as  a  test  for  metals.  With  this  he 
detected  lead  in  a  solution  of  the  proportion  of  i  to  30,000. 
This  test  was  greatly  praised  by  the  chemical  and  scientific 
journals  of  the  day.  Trommsdorff's  Journal  of  Pharmacy  stated 
that  ignorance  of  Hahnemann's  Wine  Test  was  damning  evi- 
dence of  the  incompetence  of  many  apothecaries.* 

In  1789  he  translated  the  "History  of  the  Lives  of  Abelard 
and  Heloise"  from  the  English  of  Sir  Joseph  Barrington.  This 
translation  was  mentioned  by  the  critics  as  being  correct  and 
fluent,  and  of  value  to  romantic  history. 

*"Ameke, "  pp.  21-29. 


32  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 


CHAPTER  X. 


LIFE   AT   DRESDEN — ORIGINAL  WRITINGS — CHEMICAL   DISCOVER- 
IES— SOLUBLE    MERCURY — DEPARTURE    FOR    LEIPSIC. 

Hahnemann,  during  his  stay  at  Dresden,  published  also  the 
following  original  books.  In  1786,  a  masterly  work  on  "Poi- 
soning by  Arsenic:  Its  Treatment  and  Judicial  Investigation." 
This  book  marked  a  new  era  in  the  analysis  and  best  modes  of 
detection  of  arsenical  poisoning.  This  he  calls  his  firstling, 
and  dedicates  it  "To  the  Majesty  of  the  good  Kaizer  Joseph." 

In  it  he  devotes  space  to  discussion  of  the  limit  of  the  activity 
of  the  Arsenic.  He  opposes  the  unregulated  sale  of  Arsenic 
"fever  powders,"  and  advances  plans  for  the  prescription  of 
poisons,  that  have  since  been  adopted.  He  suggests  that  there 
be  a  locked  room  for  poisons  in  the  drug  store;  that  only  the 
proprietor  or  some  responsible  representative  should  have  the 
key ;  that  record  should  be  kept  in  a  book  of  the  name  and  ad- 
dress of  each  purchaser,  who  should  also  sign  this  record,  which 
should  be  open  to  the  inspection  of  a  Board  of  Examiners, 
yearly.  In  his  patient  research  he  quotes  86 1  passages  from 
389  different  authors  and  books,  in  different  languages  and 
belonging  to  diflerent  ages,  and  gives  accurately  both  volume 
and  page.* 

By  means  of  Hahnemann's  book  new  and  better  modes  of 
analyzing  Arsenic  were  introduced  into  medical  jurisprudence. 
It  received  praise  from  the  leading  scientists  of  the  day. 

Hahnemann's  opinion  in  regard  to  the  medicine  of  the  time  is 
fully  shown  b}'  the  following  statement  published  in  the  preface 
of  this  book: 

"  A  number  of  causes — I  dare  not  to  count  them  up — have  for 
centuries  been  dragging  down  the  dignity  of  that  divine  science 
of  practical  medicine,  and  have  converted  it  into  a  miserable 
grabbing  after  bread,  a  mere  cloaking  of  symptoms,  a  degrading 
prescription  trade,  a  ver}'  God- forgotten  handiwork,  so  that  the 
real  physicians  are  hopelessly  jumbled  together  with  a  heap  of 
befrilled  medicine  mongers.  How  seldom  is  it  possible  for  a 
straightforward  man  by  means  of  his  great  knowledge  of  the 
sciences,  and  by  his  talents  to  raise  himself  above  the  crojvd  of 

*Ameke,  p.  17. 


LIFE    AT    DRESDEN.  33 

medicasters,  and  to  throw  such  a  pure,  bright  sheen  upon  the 
Healing  Art  at  whose  altar  he  ministers  that  it  becomes  impos- 
sible even  for  the  common  herd  to  mistake  a  glorious,  benign 
evening  star  for  mere  vapoury  skyfall.  How  seldom  is  such  a 
phenomenon  seen,  and  hence  how  difficult  it  is  to  obtain  for  a 
purified  science  of  medicine  a  renewal  of  her  musty  letters  of 
nobility."-'^ 

At  this  time  he  was  greatly  devoted  to  chemistry,  and  contrib- 
uted, during  the  years  1787-S8-89,  the  following  important 
essays  to  Crell's  Annals  of  Chemistry.  This  journal  was  the  first 
to  be  devoted  to  chemistry  in  Germany,  and  Hahnemann  was  a 
contributor  from  1787  to  1794.  "  On  the  Difficulty  of  Preparing 
Soda  from  Potash  and  Kitchen  Salt."  At  this  time  soda  pre- 
pared by  means  of  the  methods  known,  cost  nine  shillings  a 
pound.  Hahnemann  by  means  of  potash  and  by  crystallization 
at  different  temperatures  obtained  it  from  salt  much  cheaper. 
"On  the  Influence  of  Certain  Gases  in  the  Fermentation  of 
Wine."  The  method  for  the  rapid  manufacture  of  vinegar, 
•discovered  in  1833,  ^^^  ^^  this  time  in  use,  was  to  let  alcohol 
rapidly  run  over  chips  of  beech  wood.  In  this  essay  Hahne- 
miann  announces  his  discovery  that  the  influence  of  the  oxygen 
•of  the  air  will  rapidly  produce  the  desired  result.  He  tried  the 
eff"ect  of  three  gases  on  wine.  He  prepared  three  bottles,  each 
•containing  four  ounces  of  wine,  In  one  he  placed  oxygen  gas; 
in  another,  nitrogen;  in  the  other,  carbonic  acid.  He  sealed 
them,  kept  them  for  two  months  at  the  same  temperature,  shak- 
ing each  thirty  times  a  day.  Upon  examination,  he  found  that 
the  wine  in  the  oxygen  bottle  had  become  strong  vinegar. 
"On  the  Wine  Test  for  Iron  and  Lead,"  "On  Bile  and  Gall 
■Stones."  In  this  he  exposed  the  fresh  bile  from  a  man  who  had 
been  shot  while  in  health,  to  the  effect  of  certain  salts,  in  order 
to  test  their  value  in  liver  diseases.  "Essay  on  a  New  Agent 
in  the  Prevention  of  Putrefaction."  He  found  that  lunar  caustic 
is  an  antiseptic  in  a  solution  of  i  to  1000,  and  observed  antisep- 
tic effects  from  a  solution  of  i  to  100,000.  "Unsuccessful  Ex- 
periments," "Letter  to  Crell  on  Baryta,"  "Discovery  of  a  New 
■Constituent  in  Plumbago,"  "Observations  on  the  Astringent 
Principles  of  Plants." 

We  come  now  to  another  important  treatise,  the  "  Exact  Mode 
*J.  C.  Burnett's  "  Ecce  Medicus,"  p.  33.     London,  1881. 


34  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

of  Preparing  the  Soluble  Mercury,  1789."  Chemists  had  for  a: 
long  time  been  searching  for  a  preparation  of  Merairy  less- 
corrosive  than  the  sublimate,  muriate  or  sulphate,  then  in  use. 
Hahnemann,  by  the  use  of  nitric  acid  and  iron,  at  last  obtained' 
the  desired  result.  Gren,  who  had  previously  attacked  Hahne- 
mann on  his  test  for  metals,  said  of  this:  "The  problem  of  Herr 
Macques  to  obtain  a  preparation  of  Mercury  which  is  at  once 
very  soluble  in  the  acids  present  in  the  body,  and  yet  free  from 
corrosive  properties,  is  fully  solved  by  Herr  Hahnemann's  Mer- 
curiiis  solubilisy  This  preparation  has  been  greatl}^  praised  by 
chemists  and  physicians. 

"  Instructions  Concerning  Venereal  Diseases,  Together  with  a 
New  Mercurial  Preparation."  In  this  he  gives  instructions  con- 
cerning the  use  of  Mercury,  and  treats  of  its  effects  on  the  body, 
known  as  "  mercurial  fever."  This  book  was  written  at  Locko- 
witz,  near  Dresden,  in  1788,  and  was  published  at  Leipsic,  in 
1789.  He  also  published  several  other  papers  about  this  time 
on  the  subject  of  Mcfciiry  and  its  relation  to  syphilis. 

But  the  in.satiable  thirst  for  extended  knowledge  still  impelled 
Hahnemann,  and  in  the  latter  part  of  September,  1789,  he  re- 
moved to  Leipsic  "in  order  to  be  nearer  to  the  fountain  of  sci- 
ence." 

It  is  well  to  consider  the  next  words  of  his  autobiography  very 
carefully:  "Here  I  quietly  witness  the  Providence  which  Des- 
tiny assigns  to  each  of  my  days,  the  number  of  which  lies  in  her 
hand."  Only  ten  years  before  he  had  received  his  degree  as 
physician,  and  during  that  time  had  become  so  dissatisfied  with 
medical  methods  that  he  preferred  to  devote  all  his  time  to  liter- 
ary life,  continuing  in  the  meantime  his  chemical  labors  and  in- 
vestigations. In  this  time  he  had  discovered  very  mau}^  valuable- 
facts  in  chemistry,  had  translated  several  scientific  books  into  the- 
German,  and  had  given  to  the  world  a  number  of  essays  on  import- 
ant subjects.  It  is  interesting  in  this  connection  to  note  the  effect; 
of  the  life  of  the  man  during  these  ten  years  upon  his  future.  It 
would  seem  that  the  days  passed  in  the  librar}-  of  Baron  Brucken- 
thal,  the  practice  in  Hungary,  the  hours  of  doubt  and  uncertainty 
in  sleepy  Gommern,  the  delightful  intercourse  in  scholarly  Dres" 
den,  all  became  means  to  develop  and  equip  Hahnemann  for  the 
brilliant  discoveries  that  he  was  soon  destined  to  make.  The 
translation  concerning  the  adulteration  of  drugs  led  him  to  doubt 


BELOVED   LEIPSIC.  35 

the  good  faith  of  the  pharmacists,  and  his  knowledge  gained  while 
inspector  of  drugs,  of  their  substitutions  and  fraudulent  prac- 
tices probably  went  far  in  the  future  to  favor  his  desire  to  pre- 
pare and  dispense  his  own  medicines.  And  the  hours  of  pains- 
taking necessary  in  translating  were  the  means  of  giving  his 
mind  the  needful  exactness  for  the  future  mathematical  law  of 
healing  God  was  to  allow  him  to  discover.  How  little  did  he  yet 
understand  the  ' '  Providence  that  Destiny  was  to  assign  to  his 
days  !"  The  long  years  of  persecution;  the  quiet  of  the  garden 
of  Koethen;  the  luxury  of  life  in  the  gayest  city  in  the  world, - 
and  the  peaceful  end  with  the  knowledge  that  he  "  had  not  lived 


CHAPTER  XI. 

BELOVED  LEIPSIC — CULLEN'S   MATERIA   MEDICA — FIRST   EXPERI- 
MENTS   WITH    PERUVIAN    BARK — FIRST    PROVINGS 
UPON    THE    HEALTHY. 

Once  more  established  in  his  beloved  Leipsic,  he  resumed  his- 
translations.  In  1790  he  published  a  translation  from  the  Eng- 
lish: "Ryan  on  Diseases  of  the  Lungs,"  and  the  same  year, 
from  the  Italian:  "  Fabbroni  on  the  Art  of  Making  Wine  on 
Rational  Principles,"  adding,  as  was  his  custom,  many  notes. 
Crell's  Annalen  says:*  "Well  merited  applause  this  work  has> 
received.  Besides  the  fact  that  this  translation  is  faithful  and 
successful,  Herr  Hahnemann  has  added  precious  notes  which 
expand  and  elucidate  Fabbroni's  principles;  he  has  thus  en- 
hanced the  value  of  the  work." 

We  now  come  to  the  translation  of  a  very  important  book,, 
from  which  must  be  dated  the  discovery  of  the  L,aw  of  the  Simi- 
lars, Cullen's  "  Materia  Medica."  It  has  been  asked  why  Hahne- 
mann at  this  time  happened  to  translate  this  particular  book,  and 
it  has  been  asserted  that  he  used  it  as  a  blind  to  foist  on  the  world 
his  particular  theories.  It  is  not  probable  that  when  he  com- 
menced upon  "Cullen"  Hahnemann  had  any  particular  medical 
theories,  but  only  a  growing  disgust  for  the  medical  fallacies  of 
the  day.  This  is  clearly  evidenced  by  his  writings  at  that  time. 
It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  he  should  translate  the  work 
at  that  time.     He  was  translating  for  money,  for  the  booksellers 

*Ameke,  page  40. 


36  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

and  publishers  of  Leipsic,  and  it  is  not  likely  that  he  selected 
the  books  which  he  was  to  translate. 

Dr.  CuUen  was  an  authority  on  the  subject  of  the  Materia 
Medica  of  his  day,  an  experienced  lecturer,  a  talented  chemist, 
and  a  brilliant  and  popular  teacher  in  Edinburgh.  Naturally 
the  Germans  wished  to  learn  of  his  new  and  peculiar  theories 
regarding  disease,  as  well  as  to  obtain  the  use  of  his  Materia 
Medica,  that  at  this  time  was  a  standard  work.* 

Hahnemann  was  the  most  accomplished  translator  of  medical 
works  of  the  time,  and  what  more  natural  than  that  the  task 
should  be  given  to  him.  Cullen  published  the  first  edition  of 
this  book,  in  London,  in  1773.  Another  edition  was  issued  in 
17S9,  in  two  volumes,  and  it  was  this  edition  that  Hahnemann 
used  in  his  translation.  In  this  book.  Volume  II..  Cullen  devotes 
about  twenty  pages  to  Cortex  Peruvianis  (Peruvian  Bark),  giving 
its  therapeutical  uses  in  the  treatment  of  intermittent  and  remit- 
tent fevers,  advises  its  use  to  prevent  the  chill,  and  gives  minute 
directions  for  the  safest  period  of  the  disease  in  which  to  use  it. 
Hahnemann  was  impressed  with  the  use  of  this  drug,  with  which 
he  as  a  physician  had  before  been  familiar.  Something  in  the 
manner  in  which  Cullen  wrote  decided  Hahnemann  to  experi- 
ment with  it  upon  himself  and  to  see  what  effect  it  would  have 
upon  a  person  in  perfect  health.  The  result  of  this  experiment 
will  be  given  in  Hahnemann's  own  words.  In  the  translation 
of  William  Cullen's  "Materia  Medica,"  Leipsic,  Schweikert, 
1790,  page  108  of  Volume  II.,  appears  the  following  foot  note  by 
Hahnemann:  "By  combining  the  strongest  bitters  and  the 
strongest  astringents,  one  can  obtain  a  compound  which,  in 
small  doses,  possesses  much  more  of  both  these  properties  than 
the  bark,  and  yet  no  specific  for  fever  will  ever  come  of  such  a 
compound.  This  the  author  (Cullen)  ought  to  have  accounted 
for.  This  will,  perhaps,  not  so  easily  be  discovered  for  explain- 
ing to  us  their  action,  in  the  absence  of  the  Cincho7ia  principle." 
"  Substances  which  excite  a  kind  of  fever,  as  very  strong  coffee, 
pepper.  Aconite,  Ignatia,  Arsenic,  extinguish  the  types  of  the 
fever.  I  took  by  way  of  experiment,  twice  a  day,  four  drachms 
of  good  China.  My  feet,  finger  ends,  etc.,  at  first  became  cold; 
I  grew  languid  and  drowsy;  then  my  heart  began  to  palpitate, 
and  my  pulse  grew  hard  and  small;  intolerable  anxiety,  trem- 

*Cullen  died  in  1790. 


BEI.OVED   LEIPSIC.  37 

bling  (but  without  cold  rigor),  prostration  throughout  all  my 
limbs;  then  pulsation  in  my  head,  redness  of  my  cheeks,  thirst, 
and,  in  short,  all  these  symptoms,  which  are  ordinarily  charac- 
teristic of  intermittent  fever,  made  their  appearance,  one  after 
the  other,  yet  without  the  peculiar  chilly,  shivering  rigor." 

' '  Briefly,  even  those  symptoms  which  are  of  regular  occurrence 
and  especially  characteristic — as  the  stupidity  of  mind,  the  kind 
of  rigidity  in  all  the  limbs,  but,  above  all  the  numb,  disagreeable 
sensation,  which  seems  to  have  its  seat  in  the  periosteum,  over 
every  bone  in  the  body — all  these  make  their  appearance.  This 
paroxysm  lasted  two  or  three  hours  each  time,  and  recurred  if  I 
repeated  this  dose,  not  otherwise;  I  discontinued  it,  and  was  in 
good  health."*  The  next  note,  occurring  but  a  few  pages  be- 
yond, in  the  German  translation,  is  as  follows: 

' '  Had  he  (Cullen)  found  traces  in  bark  of  a  power  to  excite  an 
artificial  antagonistic  fever,  he  certainly  would  not  have  per- 
sisted so  obstinately  in  his  mode  of  explanation." 

Further  on  Cullen  says:  f  "  Although  I  would  not  rigourously 
insist  on  the  employment  of  a  single  dose  near  to  the  time  of  ac- 
cession, yet  I  am  strongly  of  opinion,  that  the  nearer  tne  exhi- 
bition is  brought  to  that  time,  it  will  be  the  more  certainly 
effectual.  To  explain  this  not  commonly  understood;  we  must 
remark,  that  the  effects  of  the  bark  on  the  human  body  are  not 
very  durable.  I  have  had  opportunities  of  observing  that  a 
considerable  quantity  of  bark  given,  was  not  sufficient  to  pre- 
vent a  relapse  in  a  few  days  after."  Hahnemann  makes  the 
following  foot  note  about  this:  "  How  comes  it  that  the  effects  of 
bark  are  so  short  lived,  as  is  indeed  the  case,  if  it  be  not  true 
that  bark,  besides  the  astringent  and  tonic  bitter  propensities 
ascribed  to  it  by  writers,  especially  by  the  author,  possesses  an- 
other power,  (that  of  exciting  fever  of  a  peculiar  kind)  ?"  % 

A  very  graphic  description  of  these  experiments  of  Hahne- 
mann is  given  in  "  Samuel  Hahnemann,  a  Biographical  Study,"  || 
as  follows:  "  To  judge  of  the  physiological  effect  of  bark  he  took 
several  doses  as  prescribed  by  the  profession  for  ague.      The  re- 

*Brit.  Jour.  Hom.,Yo\.  24,  p.  207.     Ameke,  p.   103. 

tCullen's  "Treatise  of  the  Materia  Medica.      Edinburgh,   1789      Vol.  2, 
p.  64. 
•  %  Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  24,  p.  215. 

\\Hom.  World,  Vol.  10,  p.  234.  1875. 


38  LIFE   OF    HAHNEMANN. 

suit  was  that  in  his  previously  healthy  system  there  occurred 
decided  paroxysms  resembling  those  of  ague.  The  experiment 
had  carried  him  farther  than  he  anticipated.  It  had  taught  him 
not  only  the  exact  physiological  effects  of  bark;  it  had  shown 
him  that  those  effects  were  apparently  the  same  as  the  symptoms 
of  the  disease  it  was  given  with  undeniable  success  to  cure. 
Does  Bark,  then,  he  asked,  produce  the  same  symptoms  as  it 
removes  ?  Does  it  alike  produce  and  cure  Ague  ?  It  is  called  a 
^Specific*  Is  the  Specific  curing  power  of  drugs  founded  on 
such  a  principle  ?  Do  they  all  uniformly  excite  a  counterfeit 
disease  to  that  which  they  remedy  ?  Drug  after  drug,  specific 
after  specific  was  tested  on  himself  and  on  healthy  friends  with 
one  unvarying  result — each  remedy  of  recognized  specific  power 
excited  a  spurious  disease  resembling  that  for  which  it  was  con- 
sidered specific.  But  many  more  symptoms  than  those  diag- 
nostic of  any  one  disease  resulted  from  almost  every  medicine, 
and  aroused  a  hope  in  the  experimenter's  mind  of  specifically 
itreating  a  greater  number  of  diseases  than  had  ever  been  so 
.treated  before.  Besides  discovering  many  valuable  medicinal 
phenomena  undreamt  of,  he  verified  his  discoveries  and  obser- 
vations by  ransacking  the  volumes  of  recorded  experiments  on 
Materia  Medica  and  the  whole  history  of  poisoning.  The  effect 
of  his  investigations  was  not,  therefore,  a  blind  leap  from  one 
false  theory  to  another  which  might  be  equally  fallacious  and 
more  mischievous  than  the  former  one.  Six  years  were  ex- 
pended in  proving  drugs  and  verifying  his  principle  before  pro- 
<:laiming  it  to  the  world." 

Regarding  these  first  experiments  in  proving  drugs  on  the 
healthy,  Everest  says:  f  "  Inasmuch  as  the  action  of  the  same 
substance  varied  according  to  the  age,  sex,  and  idiosyncrasy  of 
the  subject  to  whom  it  was  administered,  it  was  not  considered 
.sufficient  to  experiment  on  a  few  individuals.  His  own  family 
were  all  pressed  into  the  service,  and  each  substance  was  tried 
in  various  doses  on  many  different  persons,  under  every  possible 
variety  of  circumstance,  and  beneath  the  immediate  inspection  of 
Hahnemann  himself." 


*Wellkuown  to  physicians  at  that  time. 

t  "  Popular  View  of  Homoeopathy,"  p.  85.     New  York,  1842. 


POVERTY — CONTINUED   LITERARY   LABORS. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

POVERTY — CONTINUED  LITERARY  LABORS — POWERS  OF  PERUVIAN 
BARK — FAITH  IN  GOD'S  GOODNESS. 

Hahnemann  at  this  time,  1790,  was  poor;  he  had  a  growing 
famil}^  and  nothing  to  depend  upon  but  his  translations,  to 
which,  and  to  his  chemical  researches,  he  devoted  all  his  time. 
The  Rev.  Mr.  Everest,  who  was  a  personal  friend  of  Hahne- 
mann during  the  latter  years  of  his  life,  and  who  certainly  knew 
from  his  own  lips  somewhat  of  his  earlier  years,  says:*  "  It  was 
in  the  midst  of  poverty,  in  one  little  room  which  contained  his 
whole  family,  in  a  corner,  separated  from  the  rest  of  them  by  a 
curtain,  under  every  discouragement,  and  with  a  hungry  family 
to  maintain  by  hard  drudgery,  in  the  intervals  of  his  own  in- 
vestigations, that  he  set  himself  to  his  task.  It  may,  perhaps, 
give  a  better  idea  of  the  man  himself,  if  I  mention,  that,  when 
I  once  asked  him  why  he  smoked  he  replied:  '  Oh,  it's  an  idle 
habit,  contracted  when  I  had  to  sit  up  every  other  night,  in 
order  to  get  bread  for  my  children,  while  I  was  pursuing  my  own 
investigations  by  day.'  I  then  learned  on  farther  inquiry,  that 
having  resigned  his  practice  as  a  medical  man,  he  was  compelled 
to  earn  a  living  by  translating  for  the  booksellers,  and  had,  to 
enable  him  to  continue  his  investigations,  adopted  the  plan  of 
sitting  up  the  whole  of  every  other  night." 

Thus  it  may  be  seen  that  Hahnemann  was  greatly  in  earnest 
to  thus  follow  his  new  theory,  and  endeavor  to  find  some  better 
and  surer  method  of  healing  the  sick  than  was  at  that  time 
known.  Certainly  his  self-denying  life  is  sufficient  answer  to 
the  half  lies  of  his  detractors,  ancient  and  modern.  It  was  the 
effort  of  a  single-minded  and  pure-hearted  man  to  discover  the 
truth  in  the  manner  that  his  father  had  long  before  taught 
him  in  this  maxim:  "Never  take  anything  for  granted,  nor 
receive  anything  in  any  science  as  a  truth,  until  you  have  in- 
vestigated it  for  yourself." 

During  the  year  1791,  Hahnemann  received  honors  from  two 
important  societies.  He  was  elected  a  member  of  the  Oekono- 
mische  Gesellschaft  of  L,eipzig,  and  also  Fellow  of  the  Academy 
of  Sciences  of  Mayence. 

^Russell's  "Homoeopathy  in  1851,"  p.  305.  Edinburgh  and  London,  1852. 


40  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

His  discoveries  in  chemistry,  and  his  wonderful  knowledge  of 
medical  subjects  were  attracting  the  attention  of  the  scientific 
men  of  his  time. 

During  the  year,  1791,  he  translated  Grigg's  "Advice  to  the 
Female  Sex;"  Arthur  Young's  "Annals  of  Agriculture,"  in 
two  volumes;  Rigby's  "Chemical  Observations  of  Sugar;" 
Monro's  "Medical  and  Pharmaceutical  Chemistry,"  two  volumes, 
from  the  English;  and  Metherie's  "  Essay  on  Pure  Air,"  from  the 
French.  *Crell,  in  mentioning  this  new  translation  in  the 
Aiinalen,  says  :  "The  translator  is  Dr.  Hahnemann,  a  man  wha 
has  rendered  many  services  to  science  both  by  his  own  writings 
on  chemistry,  and  by  his  excellent  translations  of  important 
foreign  works.  His  services  have  been  already  recognized,  but 
deserve  to  be  still  more  so." 

He,  also,  during  this  year,  wrote  original  articles  for  Crell's 
Annalen  on  "The  Insolubility  of  Metals,"  and  on  the  "Best 
Means  of  Preventing  Salivation,  and  the  Destructive  Effects  of 
Mercury." 

Monro  in  his  ' '  Chemico-Pharmaceutical  Materia  Medica, ' '  alsa 
mentions  the  Cortex  Peruvianis,  devoting  to  it  about  twenty 
pages  of  the  second  volume,  and  Hahnemann  again  adds  ori- 
ginal notes  as  follows : 

t  Monro  having  said:  "I  have  seen  people  who  within  a 
month  have  taken  from  eight  to  ten  ounces  of  it  {Cortex  Peruv.) 
without  the  least  good  effect;  but  who  on  the  other  hand  were 
cured  when  they  took  two  ounces  in  a  single  day,  and  kept  up 
this  dose  for  two  or  three  days  successively." 

To  this  Hahnemann  made  the  following  answer:  "  Nor  is  this 
quantity  necessary.  The  patient  is  not  overloaded,  and  an 
equally  good  result  is  attained  in  regular  intermittent  fever  if, 
shortly  before  the  expected  attack,  one  or  two  good  doses  are 
administered;  for  instance,  two  hours  and  one  hour  before  the 
approach  of  the  paroxysm,  from  one  and  a  half  to  two  drachms 
in  each  dose  of  good  bark  in  substance.  All  previous  doses 
given  long  before  the  attack  are  of  little  or  no  avail  in  checking 
it.  Should  the  first  attack  not  appear,  then  let  the  same  treat- 
ment be  followed  with  respect  to  the  second,  and  reduce  the  dose 
to  half  at  the  time  the  third  may  be  expected." 

*Ameke,  p.  40, 

■\  Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  24,  p.  218. 


POVERTY — CONTINUED   LITERARY    LABORS.  4 1 

"If,  as  Cullen  and  others  suppose,  the  anti-pyretic  power  of 
bark  proceeded  from  its  tonic  properties,  it  would  be  more  to  be 
depended  on  to  cure  intermittent  fever  in  the  first  mode  of  ex- 
hibition than  in  the  second,  since  the  system  must  be  certainly 
more  strengthened  by  taking  ten  ounces  in  a  month  than  by 
taking  one  or  two  ounces  in  five  or  six  doses  immediately  before 
the  attack;  but  this  is  not  the  case.  If,  however,  my  opinion, 
more  circumstantially  worked  out  in  the  remarks  on  Cullen 's 
'  Materia  Medica,'  be  admitted,  'that  the  bark,  besides  its  tonic 
property,  overrules  and  subdues  intermittent  fever  by  exciting  a 
fever,  peculiar  to  itself,  and  of  short  duration,'  then  it  will  not 
be  difficult  to  solve  this  paradox.  All  other  substances  which 
excite  antagonistic  irritability  and  artificial  fever,  check  inter- 
mittent fever,  if  administered  shortly  before  the  attack,  as  speci- 
fically as  bark,  only  they  are  not  so  certain  in  their  operation. 
Of  this  kind  are  Ipecacuanha,  taken  dry,  Ignatia,  Arsenic,  Pepper, 
Wine,  and  Brandy,  a  concentrated  infusion  of  several  ounces  of 
burnt  coffee  with  lemon  juice,  and  so  on,  none  of  which  belong 
in  the  least  to  tonic  remedies.  The  first  (^Ipecacuanha)  is  even 
useful  in  cases  where  bark  has  been  already  tried  in  vain,  or 
with  injury  to  the  patient.  Besides,  there  are  medicines  much 
more  bitter  and  astringent  than  bark,  for  instance,  the  powder  of 
gall  apples  mixed  with  gentian  root,  and  still  the  bark  is  pre- 
ferred for  checking  intermittent  fever;  indeed,  all  bitter  plants 
excite,  in  large  doses,  some  artificial  fever,  however  small,  and 
thus  occasionally  drive  away  intermittent  fever  by  themselves. 
I  have  stated  my  opinion  on  this  subject  and  would  add  that  this 
power  to  excite  a  peculiar  fever  appears  the  more  probable  from 
the  well  known  fact  that,  in  common  with  everything  which  stim- 
ulates the  action  of  the  heart  and  arteries,  it  increases  the  heat, 
even  in  the  mildest  attacks,  if  administered  during  the  hot  stage 
itself,  especially  where  fulness  of  blood  predominates." 

The  next  remark  on  the  bark  disease  can  be  found  in  the  "  Or- 
ganon."  There  is  also  a  note  in  the  third  volume  of  the  1825 
edition  of  the  Materia  Medica  Picra  regarding  the  fever-exciting 
power  of  Cinchona. 

It  may  be  mentioned  that  Hahnemann  was  not  the  first  to 
translate  "Cullen's  Materia  Medica"  into  German.  In  1781, 
Dr.  Geo.  W.  Chr.  Consbruch  made  the  translation:     It  was  pub- 


42  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

lished  in  Leipzig  by  Weygand.  A  second  edition  was  issued  in 
1790.* 

So  much  has  been  written  about  this  discovery  of  the  inter- 
mittent fever  producing  powers  of  Quinine,  and  so  man}'  mis- 
representations made  of  Hahnemann's  position  in  the  matter  that 
it  has  been  deemed  wise  to  make  these  quotations  at  length. 
"  Hahnemann  never  said  that  bark  could  produce  intermittent 
fever  in  a  healthy  person,  but  that  the  artificial,  antagonistic  fever 
produced  by  bark  is  attended  with  symptoms  similar  to  those 
which  appear  in  the  intermittent  fever,  "f 

In  Hahnemann's  proving  of  China  the  names  of  twenty-one 
of  his  pupils  are  mentioned  as  provers.:{: 

Hahnemann  was  not  the  first  to  try  drugs  on  the  healthy  or- 
ganism. Anton  Stoerck,  on  June  23,  1760,  rubbed  fresh  Sb-am- 
ony  on  his  hands  to  see  if,  as  the  botanists  said,  it  would  inebri- 
ate him.  II  •  It  did  not,  and  he  then  rubbed  some  in  a  mortar,  and, 
sleeping  in  the  same  room,  got  a  headache.  He  then  made  an 
extract,  placing  it  on  his  tongue.  He  wished  to  know  if  the 
drug  could  be  safely  used  as  a  remedy.  Stoerck  says  that  if 
Stramo7iinvi  disturbs  the  senses  and  produces  mental  derange- 
ment in  persons  who  are  healthy,  it  might  very  easily  be  admin- 
istered to  maniacs  for  the  purpose  of  restoring  the  senses  by 
effecting  a  change  of  ideas.  Crumpe,  an  Irish  physician,  tried 
drugs  on  the  healthy,  and  published  a  book  in  London  on  the 
effects  of  Opium,  in  1793,  three  years  after  the  first  experiments 
of  Hahnemann.  Hahnemann  refers  in  the  "Organon"  to  the 
Danish  surgeon,  Stahl,  who  says:  "  I  am  convinced  that  diseases 
are  subdued  by  agents  which  produce  a  similar  affection. "§ 

Haller,  of  the  University  of  Gottingen,  wrote:^,     "In  the  first 

*Dr.  Wilhelm  Cullen's,  Professors  der  medizinischen  Praxis  iu  Ediu- 
"bvirg  Materia  Medica,  oder  Lehre  von  den  Rahruugs-uud  Arzueymittelu. 
Nach  dem  neuen  und  vom  Verfasser  allein  fur  acht  euerkannten  Origiual. 
Zweite  Auflage.  Aus  dem  Euglischen  mit  uothigeu  Zusassen  herausgege- 
ben  von  G.  W.  C.  Consbruch,  Doktor  der  Arznej'wisseuschaft  iu  Bielefeld 
in  Westphalen.  Mit  Chursachsisclier  Freiheit.  Leipzig  :  Wej-gaud.  1890. 
80  pp.  609. 

■\Brit.  Jotir.  Horn.,  Vol.  24,  p.  218. 

XBrit.  Jour.  Hotn.,  Vol.  24,  p.  232. 

II"  Ecce  Medicus,"  pp.  91-4. 

i^"  Organon,"  New  York,  4th  ed.,  p.  91. 

*\  Mottihly  Horn.  Review,  Vol.  10,  p.  584. 


POVERTY — CONTINUED   LITERARY  LABORS.  43 

place  the  remedy  is  to  be  tried  upon  the  healthy  body,  without 
any  foreign  substance  mixed  with  it;  a  small  dose  is  to  be  taken; 
attention  is  to  be  directed  to  every  eflfort  produced  by  it  on  the 
pulse,  the  temperature,  the  respiration,  the  secretions." 

The  first  portion  of  the  ' '  Organon' '  is  devoted  by  Hahnemann  to 
citations  from  medical  writers  in  whose  experiments  the  law  of 
the  similars  is  clearly  forshadowed.  Several  almost  reached  the 
practical  deductions  from  this  law.  Hahnemann  alone  possessed 
the  necessary  medical  and  chemical  knowledge  to  follow  out 
and  develop  the  vague  ideas  of  his  medical  fathers.  The  years 
of  study  in  the  vast  libraries  were  beginning  to  bear  fruit.  The 
law  was  there,  had  been  from  the  first;  the  mind  to  grasp  that 
law  was  needed.  Hahnemann  always  modestly  said  that  his 
discovery  was  God's  gift  to  him  for  the  benefit  of  mankind. 

During  the  year  1792  Hahnemann  published  an  article  in 
Crell's  An7ialen  on  the  "  Preparation  of  Glauber's  Salts,"  and 
also  on  the  "Art  of  Wine  Testing."  He  also  wrote  the  first 
part  of  the  "Friend  to  Health."  This  consists  of  a  series  of 
short  essays  on  hygienic  subjects,  and  will  well  repay  careful 
study  at  the  present  day.  It  may  be  found  in  the  "I^esser 
Writings." 

He  did  not  now  practice  medicine;  his  translations  gave  him 
but  a  meagre  support;  he  had  a  growing  family,  and  some  time, 
probably  in  the  year  1791,  poverty  compelled  him  to  remove 
from  I^eipsic  to  the  little  village  of  Stotteritz.  Burnett  says  of  this 
time:  *"He  there  clad  himself  in  the  garb  of  the  very  poor, 
wore  clogs  of  wood,  and  helped  his  wife  in  the  heavy  work  of 
the  house,  and  kneaded  his  bread  with  his  own  hands." 

His  children  fell  sick;  the  future  looked  very  dark  to  the 
honest  seeker  after  truth.  He  had  lost  faith  in  medicine.  Of 
this  time  he  writes:  f"  Where  shall  I  look  for  aid,  sure  aid? 
sighed  the  disconsolate  father  on  hearing  the  moaning  of  his 
dear,  inexpressibly  dear  sick  children.  The  darkness  of  night 
and  the  dreariness  of  a  desert  all  around  me;  no  prospect  of 
relief  for  my  oppressed  paternal  heart." 

*"Ecce  Medicus,"  p  43. 

fLetter  to  Hufeland,   "Lesser  Writiugs,"  New  York,  p.  513. 


44  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


FURTHER  EXPERIMENTS — INSANITY  OF  KI^OCKENBRING — ASYLUM 
AT  GEORGENTHAL — GENTLE  METHODS  WITH  THE  INSANE. 

It  is  to  be  remembered  that  during  the  two  years  following-  the 
translation  of  Cullen,  Hahnemann  continued  to  experiment  upon 
himself  and  on  his  family  and  certain  of  his  friends  with  differ- 
ent substances.  But  he  had  not  as  yet  tested  the  truth  of  his 
new  principle  on  the  sick.  The  insanity  of  Klockenbring  gave 
him  this  opportunity. 

In  1792  he  went  to  Georgenthal,  in  the  Principality  of  Gotha, 
to  take  charge  of  an  asylum  for  the  insane  and  to  treat  Herr 
Klockenbring.  There  are  several  different  accounts  of  this 
period  of  his  life.  Hartmann  says:  *  "The  opportunity  for  con- 
firming his  opinion  was  soon  afforded,  especially  in  the  hospital 
for  the  insane  at  Georgenthal.  This  institution  had  been  erected 
by  Duke  Ernst  of  Gotha,  and  was  situated  in  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  portions  of  the  Principality  of  Gotha,  at  the  foot  of  the 
Thuringian  Forest,  three  leagues  distant  from  Gotha,  the  capital 
city.  He  was  appointed  manager  by  the  Duke,  and  opened  the 
institution  in  the  beginning  of  August,  1792.  Here  he  cured, 
among  others,  the  chancellor's  private  secretary,  who  had  become 
insane." 

There  is  some  diversity  of  opinion  as  to  whether  this 
asylum  was  in  operation  before  this  time,  or  whether  he  was 
first  called  to  the  Duke  as  his  private  physician.  It  is  most 
likely  that  it  was  not  opened  until  the  insanity  of  Klockenbring 
made  it  a  necessity,  and  it  also  seems  probable  that  he  was  the 
only  patient  treated  there.  Hahnemann  himself  says,  in  his  de- 
scription of  this  gentleman's  case:  "  After  having  been  for  sev- 
eral years  much  occupied  with  diseases  of  the  most  tedious  and 
desperate  character  in  general,  and  of  all  sorts  of  venereal  mal- 
adies, cachexies,  hypochondriasis,  and  insanity  in  particular, 
with  the  assistance  of  the  excellent  reigning  Duke,  I  established 
three  years  ago  a  convalescent  asylum  for  patients  afflicted  with 
such  disorders,  in  Georgenthal  near  Gotha.  "f 

*Allgent.  Honi.  Zeitung,  Vol.  26,  p.  145. 

t"  Lesser  Writings  of  Hahuemanu,"  New  York,  p.  243. 


FURTHER   EXPERIMENTS.  45 

In  the  Monthly  Homoeopathic  Reviezv,  London,  1887,  the  fol- 
lowing account  of  this  important  episode  in  Hahnemann's  life  is 
given:* 

In  the  latter  part  of  179 1  or  the  first  part  of  1792  a  friend  of 
Hahnemann,  one  R.  Z.  Becker,  was  the  editor  and  proprietor  of 
a  paper  called  the  Reichanzeiger,  which  was,  while  Hahnemann 
lived  in  Gotha,  called  Der  Anzeiger,  and  was  a  newspaper  used 
in  discussions  among  physicians  or  in  communicating  the  one 
with  the  other.  It  was  afterwards  caW&di  Der  Reichanzeig-er,  and 
in  1806  was  called  Det'  Allgevieine  Anzeiger  der  Deutschen. 
Hahnemann  frequently  wrote  articles  for  its  columns. 

An  article  was  published  in  this  paper  describing,  at  Hahne- 
mann's suggestion,  a  model  asylum  for  the  treatment,  by  gentle 
methods,  of  the  insane  of  the  higher  classes  of  society.  The  wife 
of  F.  A.  Klockenbriug,  the  Hanoverian  Minister  of  Police,  Secre- 
tary to  the  Chancellery  of  Hanover,  saw  this  article  and  was  by 
the  editor  referred  to  Hahnemann.  For  about  five  years  Klock- 
enbriug had,  from  his  severe  labors  and  his  fast  life,  developed  a 
great  eccentricity.  In  the  winter  of  1791-92  he  became  the  sub- 
ject of  a  lampoon  by  the  German  dramatist,  Kotzebue,  in  which 
he  was  named  "  Bahrdt  with  the  iron  forehead."  On  account 
of  this  he  became  violently  insane  and  had  been  treated  by  Dr. 
Wichmann,the  Hanoverian  Court  Physician,  whom  Hahnemann 
calls  "one  of  the  greatest  physicians  of  our  age,"  for  some  time 
without  benefit.  Madame  Klockenbriug  was  so  much  impressed 
with  this  article  and  with  an  interview  with  Hahnemann  that 
she  desired-him  to  take  charge  of  the  case  of  her  husband.  To 
this  he  consented,  but  as  he  had  no  place  in  which  to  treat  this 
violent  madman,  and  as  no  doubt  the  Duke  of  Gotha  was  also 
interested  in  the  cure  of  so  distinguished  a  man  as  much  as  was 
Hahnemann  himself,  the  following  arrangement  was  made: 
The  Duke  gave  up  to  Hahnemann  a  wing  of  his  hunting  castle 
at  Georgenthal,  at  the  foot  of  the  Thuringer  Wald,  nine  miles 
from  Gotha,  and  caused  it  to  be  fitted  up  as  an  asylum. 

Hahnemann  in  his  description  of  this  casef  speaks  of  the  pre- 
vious eccentricity  of  the  patient,  of  its  causes,  and  of  the  effect 
of  the  lampoon,  acting  upon  a  mind    already  shaken.     In  the 

*  Monthly  Horn.  Review,  London,  Vol.  31,  p.  544.  (Dr.  Dudgeon.)  Horn. 
World,  London,  Vol.  10,  p.  235. 
t"  Lesser  Writings,"  New  York,  1852,  p.  244. 


46  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

winter  of  179 1-2  the  most  fearful  madness  developed  itself.  He 
was  brought  to  the  asylum  toward  the  end  of  June,  1792,  in  a  very 
melancholy  state  accompanied  by  strong  keepers.  His  face  was 
covered  with  large  spots,  was  dirty,  and  imbecile  in  expression. 
Day  and  night  he  raved.  He  was  afflicted  with  strange  halluci- 
nations, imagining  himself  in  many  positions.  Would  recite  in 
Greek,  recited,  in  the  actual  words  of  the  Hebrew  text,  a  Bible 
story  to  his  keeper.  His  quotations  from  various  languages 
were  exact.  He  lived  on  terms  of  amity  with  emperors  and 
queens.  He  destroyed  his  clothing  and  bedding,  took  his  piano 
to  pieces  to  discover  the  complementary  tone  of  harmony,  wrote 
at  one  time  a  prescription  for  his  own  cure  that  seemed  adapted 
to  the  treatment  of  insanity — in  fact,  exhibited  the  most  perfect 
forms  of  excitable  mania. 

Hahnemann  remarks  that  for  two  weeks  he  watched  him  care- 
fully before  giving  him  any  medicine.  At  the  period  of  which  we 
write  the  usual  treatment  of  all  forms  of  insanity  was  by  violence, 
by  chains,  abuse,  whipping  and  dungeons.  Ameke  says :  "  Physi- 
cians treated  excitable  and  refractory  maniacal  patients  like  wild 
animals,  corporal  chastisement  and  nauseating  medicines  were 
ordinary  means  used.  Furious  maniacs  were  strapped  down  on 
a  horizontal  board  which  could  be  quickly  turned  on  an  axis  to 
a  vertical  position,  or  put  in  a  so-called  rotating  chair.  '  It  is 
shameful  to  confess,'  says  Westphal,  in  1880,  'what  a  short  time 
has  elapsed  since  the  insane  were  shown  to  the  Sunday  visitors 
of  hospitals  and  workhouses  as  a  sort  of  sport,  and  teased  in 
order  to  amuse  the  visitors.'  " 

Hahnemann  did  not  countenance  such  cruelty  and  used  only 
the  mildest  of  methods  in  his  treatment  of  the  insane.  He  said: 
"  I  never  allow  an  insane  person  to  be  punished  either  by  blows 
or  any  other  kind  of  corporal  chastisement,  because  there  is  no 
punishment  where  there  is  no  responsibility,  and  because  these 
sufferers  deserve  only  pity  and  are  always  rendered  worse  by  such 
rough  treatment  and  never  improved." 

Dudgeon  in  his  biography  of  Hahnemann  says:  *"May  we 
not  then  justly  claim  for  Hahnemann  the  honor  of  being  the 
first  who  advocated  and  practiced  the  moral  treatment  of  the 
insane?  At  all  events  he  may  divide  the  honor  with  Pinel,  for 
we  find  that  towards  the  end  of  this  same  year,   1792,  when 

^Dudgeon's  Lectures  on  Homoeopathy,  1852. 


MOLSCHLEBEN.  47 

Hahnemann  was  applying  his  principle  of  moral  treatment  to 
practice,  Pinel  made  his  first  experiment  of  unchaining  the 
maniacs  of  the  Bicetre."      (At  Paris.) 

Klockenbring,  as  the  result  of  his  treatment,  returned  to  Han- 
over ^^rc'^  in  March,  1793.  For  this  cure  Hahnemann  received 
a  fee  of  1,000  thalers,  about  $750,  in  addition  to  the  expenses  of 
the  board  of  the  patient.  There  is  no  record  of  any  other  patients 
in  this  asylum.  H.  A.  O.  Reichards  in  his  autobiography  says:* 
"On  asking  the  witty  Judge  of  Georgenthal,  W.  H.  Jacobs, 
how  many  mad  people  Hahnemann  had  at  that  time  in  his 
asylum,  he  dryly  answered,  one,  and  that's  himself." 

In  Huf eland' s  Jour^ial,  Vol.  2,  p.  313,  appears  the  following 
note:  "An  account  of  Hahnemann's  treatment  of  the  insanity 
of  Klockenbring  is  published  in  the  Teutsch  Monatschrift  for 
February,  1796." 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

MOLSCHLEBEN — LETTERS    TO    A    PATIENT— PYRMONT — WOLFEN- 
BUTTEI. — KONIGSLUTTER . 

In  a  little  book,  published  about  1887,  at  Tubingen,  by  Dr. 
Bernhard  Schuchardt  of  Gotha,  are  published  a  series  of  letters 
written  by  Hahnemann,  between  the  years  1793  to  1805  to  a 
patient,  and  by  means  of  their  dates  his  whereabouts  during  this 
time  is  quite  exactly  determined.  A  part  of  these  letters  were 
published  in  the  Moyithly  Homoeopathic  Review  for  September, 
1887.  They  are  of  interest,  as  by  them  can  be  traced  the  gradual 
changes  in  his  prescribing  from  the  ordinary  methods  of  the  day 
to  the  more  careful  prescriptions  of  later  years.  This  book  and 
story  were  made  the  subject  of  Dr.  Dudgeon's  Hahnemann  Ora- 
tion, delivered  at  the  opening  of  the  London  Homoeopathic 
Medical  School,  October  3,  1887. f 

Hahnemann  left  Georgenthal  about  the  middle  of  May,  1793, 
agoing  from  there  to  Molschleben,  a  small  village  near  Gotha. 
Here  he  again  devoted  himself  entirely  to  his  literary  pursuits. 
He  continued  work  on  the  second  part  of  the  "Friend  to  Health," 
and  composed  the  first  part  of  the  "  Pharmaceutical  Lexicon,"  or 

*"■  Monthly  Horn.  Review,''''  Vol.  31,  p.  544. 
t"Idem,''  Vol.  31,  p   719. 


40  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

"Apothecaries'  Dictionary,"  as  it  was  also  called.  Ameke  says: 
The  subjects  are  arranged  alphabetically,  and  it  treats  of  every- 
thing which  could  be  of  use  to  the  apothecary  in  his  work.  The 
necessary  utensils  are  carefully  described.  ]Cach  article  shows 
how  well  Hahnemann  understood  the  subject.  He  often  de- 
scribes new  apparatus  invented  by  himself;  the  apothecary's 
business  of  making  up  prescriptions  and  his  laboratory  work 
are  accurately  and  clearly  explained.  He  gives  many  directions 
which  have  now  become  legal  enactments.  He  mentions  the 
rules  for  the  sale  of  poisons,  gives  the  most  minute  directions  for 
the  care  and  preparation  of  drugs,  gives  the  botanical  description 
of  remedies,  their  time  of  flowering  and  rules  for  their  collec- 
tion, and  refers  to  much  literature  upon  this  subject.  He  quotes 
from  more  than  one  hundred  works  of  botanists  and  zoologists. 
He  recommends  the  preparation  of  tinctures  from  fresh  plants, 
and  describes  the  medicinal  uses  of  many  drugs.  This  work  ap- 
peared in  numbers.  It  received  the  praise  of  all  the  scientific 
phy-sicians  of  the  day,  and  became  the  standard  work  on  phar- 
macy. 

And  yet  it  may  be  well  to  remember  that  this  consummate 
chemist,  botanist,  and  practical  pharmacist,  who  had  been  a  regu- 
lar pharmaceutical  examiner,  who  was  competent  to  write  an 
exhaustive  work  upon  these  subjects,  and  who  was,  without 
doubt,  the  most  qualified  man  of  his  time  for  such  a  task,  was  not, 
at  a  little  later  period,  considered  by  the  physicians  of  Leipsic 
a  proper  person  to  prepare  and  dispense  his  own  medicines. 

The  most  skillful  chemist  of  his  time  forbidden  to  dispense 
drugs  !  And  yet  it  is  to  be  presumed  that  at  the  same  time  the 
excuse  of  these  doctors  was  that  Wi^  people  viust  be  protected  from 
irregiilar  practitioners,  as  is  in  very  isolated  cases  the  argiunent  at 
the  present  day!  At  this  time  the  following  cure  was  made  by 
Hahnemann : 

"While  living  in  the  village  of  Molschleben,  'where  my  chil- 
dren enjoyed  perfect  health,'  there  were  many  children  affected 
with  so-called  milk  crust,  and  to  an  unusual  degree.  As  Hahne- 
mann thought  the  disease  could  be  communicated,  he  endeavored 
to  prevent  intercourse  between  his  own  and  the  infected  children 
belonging  to  the  village.  One  of  the  boys  gained  access  to 
them.  '  I  saw  him  playing  in  close  contact  to  them.  I  sent 
him  away,  but  the  infection   had   already   taken   place.     The 


FIRST  ESSAY  ON  THE  CURATIVE  POWER  OF  DRUGS.  49 

complaint  began  in  the  first  child  kissed,  and  then  spread  to 
the  other  three  children.'  "* 

'  ■  I  poured  warm  water  over  dry  Hepar  sidphuris  (powdered 
oyster  shells  mixed  with  equal  parts  of  Sidplnir,  and  kept  for 
ten  minutes  at  a  white  heat),  and  thus  made  a  weak  solution. 
I  painted  the  faces  of  the  two  who  had  the  eruption  worst  with 
this  every  hour  for  two  consecutive  days.  After  the  first  appli- 
cation the  complaint  was  arrested  and  gradually  got  well." 

Hahnemann's  letters  continue  to  be  addressed  from  Molsch- 
leben  until  October  19,  1794,  when  he  writes:  "  Pyrmont, 
where  I  think  I  shall  remain." 

This  place  is  situated  in  Westphalia,  and  was  celebrated  at 
that  time  for  its  extensive  mineral  springs,  utilized  for  bathing 
and  drinking.  He  remained  there  but  a  short  time,  going 
thence  in  1795,  to  Wolfenbuttel,  a  large  fortified  place  on  the 
river  Ocker,  five  miles  from  Brunswick,  and  the  same  year, 
1795,  again  removing  to  Konigslutter,  a  small  town  ten  miles 
from  Brunswick,  and  in  the  principality  of  Wolfenbuttel.  There 
he  remained  until  1799,  when  he  went  to  Hamburg. 

At  Konigslutter,  he  wrote  the  second  part  of  the  "Friend  to 
Health,"  and  finished  the  "  Pharmaceutical  Lexicon."  He  also 
wrote  articles  on  the  Wirtemburg  and  Hahnemann  Wine  Test; 
on  the  Preparation  of  Cassel  Yellow;  on  Crusta  lactea;  Descrip- 
tion of  Klockenbring  during  his  insanity;  on  the  Pulverization  of 
Ignatia  Beans;  and  several  other  articles.  He  translated  from 
the  French,  Rousseau  on  the  Education  of  Infants,  under  the 
title  of  "Handbook  for  Mothers;"  from  the  English,  the  "-New 
Edinburgh  Dispensatory  "  in  two  volumes;  and  "  Taplin's  Veter- 
inary Medicine."  The  translation  of  the  Dispensatory  called 
forth  from  the  chemists  of  Germany  unstinted  praise.  As  was 
liis  custom,  he  enriched  it  with  copious  notes.f 


CHAPTER  XV. 

FIRST  ESSAY  ON  THE  CURATIVE  POWER  OF  DRUGS — "HUFELAND'S 
journal" — ENMITY  OF  KONIGSLUTTER  PHYSICIANS. 

It  was   during   his   residence   at    Konigslutter,  in    1796,  that 
Hahnemann  first  communicated  to  the  world  by  means  of   the 
*Ameke,  page  73.     fAmeke,  page  41. 


50  LIFE   OF    HAHNEMANN. 

public  print  his  new  discovery  in  medicine.  In  1795  Hufeland, 
renowned  in  all  Germany,  began  to  publish  in  Jena,  a  medical 
journal  called,  Joicrnal  der  practischen  Arzneykundc  und  Wun- 
darz7ieykii7ist.  Hahnemann  and  Hufeland  were  personal  friends; 
Hufeland  was  at  the  time  professor  of  physics  at  Jena. 
Hahnemann  is  quoted  in  the  first  volume;  his  cure  of  Klocken- 
bring  is  mentioned  in  the  second  volume.  In  this  journal, 
volume  two,  parts  three  and  four,  (1796),  Hahnemann  pub- 
lished the  article  entitled:  "  Essay  on  a  New  Principle  for 
Ascertaining  the  Curative  Powers  of  Drugs."*  In  this  he  re- 
views the  condition  of  medicine  at  that  time;  argues  that  chem- 
istry is  not  the  proper  exponent  of  the  curative  action  of 
drugs;  that  the  experimentation  on  animals  with  poisons  is  of 
little  use  since  many  plants  deadly  to  man  are  innocuous  to  ani- 
mals; that  the  true  method  of  experimentation  with  drugs  is  by 
testing  them  on  the  healthy  body;  says  that  the  so-called  specif- 
ics in  common  use  are  but  the  result  of  empirical  practice,  that 
the  pure  action  of  each  drug  should  be  obtained  on  the  human 
body  by  itself. 

He  presents  his  theory  in  the  following  words:  "Every  power- 
ful medicinal  substance  produces  in  the  human  body  a  kind  of 
peculiar  disease;  the  more  powerful  the  medicine,  the  more  pecu- 
liar, marked  and  violent  the  disease.  We  should  imitate  nature 
which  sometimes  cures  a  chronic  disease  by  superadding  another, 
and  employ  in  the  (especially  chronic)  disease  we  wish  to  cure 
that  medicine  which  is  able  to  produce  another  very  similar  arti- 
ficial disease,  and  the  former  will  be  cured;  similia  similibus." 

Hahnemann  very  carefully  argues  the  question  of  the  new 
law;  he  adduces  many  results  of  poisonings  by  drugs,  gives  his- 
experience  in  the  uses  of  medicines  prescribed  according  to  the 
law  of  similars,  and  records  the  symptoms  that  certain  medicines 
produced  on  himself  and  others.  He  brings  example  for  every 
assertion  and  discusses  the  matter  in  a  calm  and  convincing 
manner. 

This  essay  can  be  found  in  the  various  editions  of  the  "Lesser 
Writings"  of  Hahnemann.  To  quote:  "  It  displays  to  full  ad- 
vantage the  exceeding  gentleness  of  Hahnemann's  temper,  the 
respect  he  entertained  for  the  opinions  of  his  professional  breth- 
ren, the  modesty  of  the  estimation  in  which  he  held  his  own, 

*  "  Lesser  Writings,"  New  York,  1852,  p.  249. 


FIRST  ESSAY  ON  THE  CURATIVE  POWER  OF  DRUGS.  5  I 

and  the  philosophical  and  comprehensive  grasp  of  his  mind.  Its 
tone  was  calm  and  impartial,  its  language  clear  and  accurate, 
its  reasoning  convincing,  its  arguments  forcible,  and  its  asser- 
tions moderate.  It  bears  no  sign  of  prejudice,  much  less  of 
acrimony.  We  think  its  scientific  mastery  of  a  question  con- 
fessedly^ among  the  most  vexed  in  medicine,  the  best  answer  to 
those  who  glibly  charge  its  author  with  charlatanry  and  igno- 
rance. Let  them  answer  Hahnemann's  arguments,  which  they 
have  never  done,  before  they  abuse  himself."  ^ 

It  was  the  first  essay  by  Hahnemann  that  appeared  in  Hufe- 
la?id's  JournaL  After  this  he  was  a  frequent  contributor  until 
1808,  the  last  article  being  about  a  prophylactic  for  scarlet  fever. 
In  1797  he  published  a  cure  of  a  case  of  colicodynia  after  the 
usual  means  of  cure  had  failed,  by  means  of  a  medicine  pro- 
ducing very  similar  morbid  symptoms.     {Veratrum  alburn.^ 

His  next  article  was:  "Are  the  Obstacles  to  Certainty  and 
Simplicity  in  Practical  Medicine  Insurmountable?"  In  it  he 
argues  in  favor  of  simple,  careful  methods.  He  says:  \  "  Why 
should  we  complain  that  our  science  is  obscure  and  intricate 
when  we  ourselves  are  the  producers  of  this  obscurity  and  in- 
tricacy ?  Formerly  I  was  infected  with  this  fever;  the  schools 
had  infected  me.  The  virus  clung  more  obstinately  to  me  be- 
fore it  came  to  a  critical  expulsion  than  ever  did  the  virus  of 
any  other  mental  disease.     Are  we  in  earnest  with  our  art  ? 

"Then  let  us  make  a  brotherly  compact,  and  all  agree  to  give 
but  one  single  simple  remedy  at  a  time  for  every  single  dis- 
ease, without  making  much  alteration  in  the  mode  of  life  of  our 
patients,  and  then  let  us  use  our  eyes  to  see  what  effect  this  or 
that  medicine  has,  how  it  does  good  or  how  it  fails.  Is  not  this 
as  simple  a  way  of  getting  over  the  difficulty  as  that  of  Colum- 
bus with  the  ^'g^,  ?" 

At  this  time  Hahnemann  was  habitually  depending  on  the 
single  remedy,  and  says  in  this  essay  that  it  has  been  a  long  time 
since  he  has  given  more  than  one  remedy  at  one  time.  He  also 
prescribed  according  to  the  law  of  similars.  He  was  in  the  habit 
of  preparing  and  dispensing  his  own  medicines  independent  of 
the  apothecaries.  By  all  his  writings  at  this  time  he  endeavored 
to  induce  his  professional  brethren  to  try  the  plan  of  simple  reme- 

*//om.  World,  Vol.  X.,  p.  334. 

t  "Lesser  Writings,"  New  York,  1852,  p.  320. 


52  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

dies  given  according  to  a  precise  law.  But  it  was  in  vain,  they 
became  jealous  of  his  success,  for  he  was  now  engaged  in  active 
practice. 

"And  the  physicians  of  Konigslutter  incited  the  apothecaries 
to  bring  an  action  against  him  for  interfering  with  them  in  dis- 
pensing his  own  medicines.  He  appealed  to  the  letter  of  the 
law  regulating  the  business  of  the  apothecary,  and  argued  that 
they  had  the  sole  privilege  of  compounding  medicines,  but  that 
any  man,  especially  an}^  medical  man,  had  a  right  to  either  give 
or  sell  uncompounded  drugs,  which  were  the  only  things  he  em- 
ployed, and  which  he  also  administered  gratuitously.  But  it  was 
in  vain,  and  Hahnemann,  a  past  master  of  pharmaceutical  art, 
was  forbidden  to  dispense  his  simple  medicines."  * 

And  now  he  must  again  think  of  leaving  his  home  and  find- 
ing a  new  one  where  he  could  practice  his  methods  and  experi- 
ment in  peace. 

In  a  letter  written  to  a  patient,  and  dated  March  14,  1799,  he 
saystf 

"To-day  I  make  you  my  confidant.  Kindly  give  the  enclosed 
letter  as  soon  as  you  can  to  the  Minister  Von  Frankenberg,  if  he 
is  still  alive,  but  if  Zigesar  is  in  his  place  give  it  to  him,  but 
before  doing  so  have  the  goodness  to  write  the  name  of  the 
present  First  Minister  in  Latin  characters  on  the  envelope  in  the 
blank  space.  I  was  not  quite  sure  if  Frankenberg  is  still  living, 
otherwise  I  would  have  written  his  name  myself.  I  am  apply- 
ing in  this  letter  for  Dr.  Buchner's  post  with  the  Duke,  and  would 
like  to  return  to  Gotha  in  that  capacity,  for  I  have  always  pre- 
ferred Gotha  to  Brunswick.  But  it  is  impossible  for  me  to  have 
an  excuse  for  changing  my  abode  unless  I  get  an  appointment  of 
this  sort. 

"  But  do  not  let  anyone  know  a  word  about  all  this,  in  order 
that  no  intrigues  may  be  set  on  foot,  as  would  certainly  hap- 
pen. But  how  will  you  manage  to  get  this  letter  at  once  and 
with  certainty  into  Frankenberg's  hands?  As  it  is,  the  news 
of  Buchner's  death  reached  me  a  week  later  than  it  ought,  so  I 
must  now  lose  no  time.  Forgive  me  for  the  trouble  I  am  putting 
you  to,  and  with  best  wishes  I  remain 

"Your  most  devoted  servant, 

"Dr.  Hahnemann." 


*Dudgeon's  Biography,  1852. 
■\3r0nthly  Horn.  Review,  Vol.  31,  p.  617. 


LETTER  TO  PATIENT  ON  CHEERFUL  METHODS  OF  EIFE.        53 

The  Dr.  Buchner  whom  he  mentions  was  the  former  physician 
in  ordinarj^  to  the  Duke,  and  had  died  a  month  before  this.  It 
can  plainly  be  understood  that  Hahnemann  thought  that  could 
he  become  physician  to  the  Duke  of  Gotha  he  would  be  in  a 
great  measure  freed  from  the  persecution  of  the  jealous  physi- 
cians and  apothecaries.  But  this  appointment  he  failed  to  pro- 
cure. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

LETTER   TO   PATIENT  ON   CHEERFUL  METHODS   OF   LIFE. 

The  next  letter  to  his  patient,  who  was  a  tailor  in  Gotha  and 
died  at  the  age  of  ninety-two,  is  so  filled  with  advice  that  must 
be  of  benefit  to  every  one  in  this  age  of  haste  that  it  is  given 
here  in  full:* 
"  My  Dear  Mr.  X : 

"  It  is  true  that  I  am  going  to  Hamburg,  but  that  need  not 
trouble  you.  If  you  do  not  grudge  the  few  groschen  a  letter 
will  cost  you  can  still  have  my  advice  when  I  am  there.  Merely 
write  my  name,  and  Hamburg  beneath  it,  and  your  letter  so  ad- 
dressed will  find  me. 

"  For  the  present  I  must  say  that  you  are  on  the  fair  road  to 
health,  and  the  chief  sources  of  your  malady  cut  off.  One  source 
still  remains,  and  it  is  the  cause  of  your  last  relapse.  Man  (the 
delicate  human  machine)  is  not  constituted  for  overwork,  he  can 
not  overwork  his  powers  or  faculties  with  impunity.  If  he  does 
so  from  ambition,  love  of  gain,  or  other  praiseworthy  or  blame- 
worthy motive,  he  sets  himself  in  opposition  to  the  order  of 
nature,  and  his  body  suffers  injury  or  destruction.  All  the 
more  if  his  body  is  already  in  a  weakened  condition;  what  you 
cannot  accomplish  in  a  week  you  can  do  in  two  weeks.  If  your 
customers  will  not  wait  they  cannot  fairly  expect  that  you  will 
for  their  sakes  make  yourself  ill  and  work  yourself  to  the 
grave,  leaving  yo\xx  wife  a  widow  and  your  children  orphans.  It 
is  not  only  the  greater  bodily  exertion  that  injures  you,  it  is  even 
more  the  attendant  strain  on  the  mind,  and  the  overwrought 
mind  in  its  turn  affects  the  body  injuriously.     If  you  do  not 

'''Monthly  Horn.  Review,  Vol.  31,  p.  617.  N.  E.  Med.  Gazette,  March, 
1887. 


54  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

assume  an  attitude  of  cool  indiflference,  adopting  the  principle  of 
living  first  for  yourself  and  only  secondly  for  others,  then  there 
is  small  chance  of  your  recovery.  When  you  are  in  your  grave 
men  will  still  be  clothed,  perhaps  not  as  tastefully,  but  still  toler- 
ably well. 

"  If  you  are  a  philosopher  you  may  become  healthy,  you  may 
attain  to  old  age.  If  anything  annoys  you  give  no  heed  to  it;  if 
anything  is  too  much  for  you  have  nothing  to  do  with  it;  if  any 
one  seeks  to  drive  you  go  slowly  and  laugh  at  the  fools  who  wish 
to  make  you  unhappy.  What  you  can  do  comfortably  that  do; 
what  you  cannot  do  don't  bother  yourself  about. 

' '  Our  temporal  circumstances  are  not  improved  by  overpres- 
sure at  work.  You  must  spend  proportionately  more  in  your 
domestic  affairs,  and  so  nothing  is  gained.  Economy,  limitation 
of  superfluities  (of  which  the  hard  worker  has  often  very  few) 
place  us  in  a  position  to  live  with  greater  comfort — that  is  to  say, 
more  rationally,  more  intelligently,  more  in  accordance  with 
nature,  more  cheerfully,  more  quietly,  more  healthily.  Thus  we 
shall  act  more  commendably,  more  wisely,  more  prudently,  than 
by  working  in  breathless  hurry,  with  our  nerves  constantly  over- 
strung, to  the  destruction  of  the  most  precious  treasure  of  life, 
calmly  happy  spirits  and  good  health. 

"Be  you  more  prudent,  consider  yourself  first,  let  everything 
else  be  of  only  secondary  importance  for  you.  And  should  they 
venture  to  assert  that  you  are  in  honor  bound  to  do  more  than  is 
good  for  your  mental  and  physical  powers,  even  then  do  not,  for 
God's  sake,  allow  yourself  to  be  driven  to  do  what  is  contrary  to 
your  own  welfare.  Remain  deaf  to  the  bribery  of  praise,  remain 
cold  and  pursue  your  own  course  slowly  and  quietly  like  a  wise 
and  sensible  man.  To  enjoy  with  tranquil  mind  and  body,  that 
is  what  man  is  in  the  world  for,  and  only  to  do  as  much  work  as 
will  procure  him  the  means  of  enjoyment — certainly  not  to  ex- 
coriate and  wear  himself  out  with  work. 

"  The  everlasting  pushing  and  striving  of  blinded  mortals  in 
order  to  gain  so  and  so  much,  to  secure  some  honor  or  other,  to 
do  a  service  to  this  or  that  great  personage — this  is  generally 
fatal  to  our  welfare,  this  is  a  common  cause  of  young  people  age- 
ing and  dying  before  their  time. 

"The  calm,  cold-blooded  man,  who  lets  things  softly  glide, 
attains  his  object  also,  lives  more  tranquilly  and  healthily,  and 


LETTER  TO  PATIENT  ON  CHEERFUL  METHODS  OF  LIFE.        55 

attains  a  good  old  age.  And  this  leisurely  man  sometimes 
lights  upon  a  lucky  idea,  the  fruit  of  serious  original  thought, 
which  shall  give  a  much  more  profitable  impetus  to  his  temporal 
affairs  than  can  ever  be  gained  by  the  overwrought  man  who  can 
never  find  time  to  collect  his  thoughts. 

"  In  order  to  win  the  race,  quickness  is  not  all  that  is  required. 
Strive  to  obtain  a  little  indifference,  coolness  and  calmness,  then 
you  will  be  what  I  wish  you  to  be.  Then  you  will  see  marvel- 
lous things;  you  will  see  how  healthy  you  will  become  by  fol- 
lowing my  advice.  Then  shall  your  blood  course  through  your 
blood  vessels  calmly  and  sedately,  without  effort  and  without 
heat.  No  horrible  dreams  disturb  the  sleep  of  him  who  lies 
down  to  rest  without  highly  strung  nerves.  The  man  who  is 
free  from  care  wakes  in  the  morning  without  anxiety  about  the 
multifarious  occupations  of  the  day.  What  does  he  care  ?  The 
happiness  of  life  concerns  him  more  than  anything  else.  With 
fresh  vigor  he  sets  about  his  moderate  work,  and  at  his  meals 
nothing,  no  ebullitions  of  blood,  no  cares,  no  solicitude  of  mind 
hinders  him  from  relishing  what  the  beneficent  Preserver  of  I^ife 
sets  before  him.  And  so  one  day  follows  another  in  quiet  suc- 
cession, until  the  final  day  of  advanced  age  brings  him  to  the 
termination  of  a  well  spent  life,  and  he  serenely  reposes  in  an- 
other world  as  he  has  calmly  lived  in  this  one. 

"Is  not  that  more  rational,  more  sensible  ?  I^et  restless,  self- 
destroying  men  act  as  irrationally,  as  injuriously  towards  them- 
selves as  they  please;  let  them  be  fools.  But  be  you  wiser!  Do 
not  let  me  preach  this  wisdom  of  life  in  vain.  I  mean  well  to 
you. 

"  Farewell,  follow  my  advice,  and  when  ail  goes  well  with  you, 
remember 

"Dr.  S.  Hahnemann. 

"P.  S. — Should  you  be  reduced  to  your  last  sixpence,  be  still 
cheerful  and  happy.  Providence  watches  over  us,  and  a  lucky 
chance  makes  all  right  again.  How  much  do  we  need  in  order 
to  live,  to  restore  our  powers  by  food  and  drink,  to  shield  our- 
selves from  cold  and  heat?  Little  more  than  good  courage; 
when  we  have  that  the  minor  essentials  we  can  find  without 
much  trouble.  The  wise  man  needs  but  little.  Strength  that 
is  husbanded  needs  not  to  be  renovated  by  medicine." 


56  LIFE   OF    HAHNEMANN. 


CHAPTER   XVII. 

EPIDEMIC  OF  SCARLATINA — DEPARTURE   FROM    KONIGSLUTTER- 
ACCIDENT  ON  THE  JOURNEY — COMPLAINT  TO  THE  PUB- 
LIC— BELLADONNA   IN  SCARLATINA — ALTON  A- 
MEDICAL   LIBERALITY   OF   THE    NINE- 
TEENTH  CENTURY. 

During  the  summer  of  1799,  the  last  year  of  his  sojourn  in 
'Konigslutter.  an  epidemic  of  scarlet  fever  occurred,  during  which 
Hahnemann  discovered  the  great  value  of  Belladojina  as  a  prophy- 
lactic against  this  serious  disease.  Hahnemann  says:  ^"  At  first 
smallpox  came  from  the  vicinity  of  Helmstadt  to  Konigslutter, 
spreading  slowly  around;  the  eruption  was  small,  wart}-  looking, 
and  it  was  accompanied  with  serious  atonic  symptoms.  In  the 
village  it  came  from  scarlet  fever  was  prevalent  at  the  time, 
and,  mixed  up  with  the  latter,  the  smallpox  made  its  appearance 
in  Konigslutter.  About  the  middle  of  the  year  the  smallpox 
ceased  almost  entirely,  and  the  scarlet  fever  then  commenced  to 
appear  more  frequently  and  alone.  This  epidemic  was  exceed- 
ingly contagious;  it  extended  through  families.  If  a  single 
child  was  affected  by  it,  not  one  of  its  brothers  and  sisters  re- 
mained exempt,  nor  did  it  fail  to  affect  other  children  who  came 
close  to  the  patients  or  to  things  that  had  come  in  contact  with 
their  exhalations." 

Hahnemann  was  ver}'  successful  both  in  the  prevention  and 
treatment  of  this  terrible  scourge,  but  at  this  time  did  not  reveal 
the  name  of  the  remedy  he  used.  No  doubt  this  may  have 
further  embittered  the  physicians  against  him.  Despite  the  wishes 
of  his  numerous  patients,  who  were  grateful  for  his  skill,  the  un- 
just opposition  of  the  jealous  doctors  was  too  powerful  for  him, 
and  he  had  to  again  resume  his  wanderings. 

Burnett  says:  f"  The  vulnerable  point  with  Hahnemann  was 
this:  At  Konigslutter  he  gave  his  own  medicines  to  his  patients, 
though  gratuitously.  The  physicians  of  Konigslutter  became 
jealous  of  his  rising  fame,  and  they  incited  the  apothecaries 
against  him,  and  these  brought  an  action  at  law  against  Hahne- 
mann for  dispensing  his  own  medicines,  and  thus  encroaching 

*"  Lesser  Writings,"  New  York,  p.  370. 
f'Ecce.  Medicus,"  p.  131. 


EPIDEMIC    OF   SCARLATINA.  57 

upon  their  rights.  It  was  decided  against  him;  he  was  forbidden 
to  give  his  own  medicines,  and  this,  of  course,  rendered  his 
further  stay  impossible." 

He  could  not  remain  in  Konigslutter,  and  in  the  autumn  of 
1799,  with  his  family,  he  departed  from  the  ungrateful  city. 

Dudgeon  says:*  "  He  purchased  a  large  carriage  or  wagon,  in 
which  he  packed  all  his  property  and  family,  and  with  a  heavy 
heart  bade  adieu  to  Konigslutter,  where  fortune  had  at  length 
begun  to  smile  upon  him.  and  where  he  found  leisure  and  oppor- 
tunity to  prosecute  his  interesting  discoveries.  Many  of  the  in- 
habitants, whose  health  he  had  been  instrumental  in  restoring, 
or  whose  lives  he  had  even  saved  by  the  discoveries  of  his  genius 
during  that  fatal  epidemic  of  scarlet  fever,  accompanied  him 
some  distance  on  the  road  to  Hamburg,  whither  he  had  resolved 
to  proceed,  and  at  length,  with  a  blessing  for  his  services,  and  a 
sigh  for  his  hard  lot,  they  bade  him  God  speed.  And  thus  he 
journeyed  on  with  all  his  earthly  possessions,  and  with  all  his 
family  beside  him.  But  a  dreadful  accident  befell  the  melan- 
choly cortege.  Descending  a  precipitous  part  of  the  road  the 
wagon  was  overturned,  the  driver  thrown  from  his  seat,  his  in- 
fant son  so  injured  that  he  died  shortly  afterwards,  and  the  leg 
of  one  of  his  daughters  was  fractured.  He  himself  was  consider- 
ably bruised,  and  his  property  much  damaged  by  falling  into  a 
stream  that  ran  at  the  bottom  of  the  road.  With  the  assistance 
of  some  peasants  they  were  conveyed  to  the  nearest  village 
(Muhlhausen),  where  he  was  forced  to  remain  upwards  of  six 
weeks  on  his  daughter's  account,  at  an  expense  that  greatly 
lightened  his  not  very  well  filled  purse." 

It  would  seem  that  after  the  accident  Hahnemann  settled  first 
in  Altona,  as  he  dates  a  letter  from  that  place  on  November 
9th,  1799,  while  the  letters  dated  from  Hamburg  occur  in  the 
year  1800. 

Kleinert,  in  his  "History  of  Homoeopathy,"  says  he  resided 
first  at  Altona.  That  he  was  here  annoyed  by  people  fond  of 
gratuitous  advice  is  evidenced  by  the  following  letter  that 
he  caused  twice  to  be  inserted  in  the  Reichanzeiger  and  for 
which  he  had  to  pay  one  thaler  and  eight  groschen. 

*Biography  of  Halinemann,  1852. 


58  LIFE   OF    HAHNEMANN. 

"COMPLAINT   AND    RESOLVE."* 

'' Dear  Public  !  It  will  scarcely  be  credited  that  there  are  peo- 
ple who  seem  to  think  that  I  am  merely  a  private  gentleman  with 
plenty  of  time  on  my  hands,  whom  they  may  pester  with  letters, 
many  of  which  have  not  the  postage  paid,  and  are  consequently 
a  tax  on  my  purse,  containing-  requests  for  professional  advice, 
to  comply  with  which  would  demand  much  mental  labor  and 
occupy  precious  time,  while  it  never  occurs  to  these  inconsider- 
ate correspondents  to  send  any  remuneration  for  the  time  and 
trouble  I  would  have  to  expend  on  answers  by  which  they  would 
benefit. 

"  In  consequence  of  the  ever-increasing  importunity  of  these 
persons,  I  am  compelled  to  announce: 

"  I .  That  henceforward  I  shall  refuse  to  take  in  any  letters 
which  are  not  postpaid,  let  them  come  from  whom  they  ma5^ 

"2.  That  after  reading  through  even  paid  letters  from  distant 
patients  and  others  seeking  advice,  I  will  send  them  back  unless 
they  are  accompanied  by  a  sufficient  fee  (at  least  a  Friedrich  d'or) 
in  a  cheque  or  in  actual  money,  unless  the  poverty  of  the  writer 
is  so  great  that  I  could  not  withhold  my  advice  without  sinning 
against  humanity. 

"3.  If  lottery  tickets  are  sent  me  I  shall  return  them  all  with- 
out exception;  but  I  shall  make  the  post  office  pay  for  all  the 
expenses  of  remission,  and  the  senders  will  get  them  back 
charged  with  this  payment. 

"  Samuel  Hahnemann,  Doctor  oj  Medicine.'''' 
'' Altona,  by  Hamburgh  November  p,  lygg.'" 

This  announcement,  compelling  patients  to  pay  for  consulta- 
tion by  letter,  being  against  the  usual  custom  of  the  time,  aroused 
a  very  great  amount  of  adverse  criticism,  and  gave  the  doctors 
another  opportunity  for  cavilling  against  their  successful  rival. 

His  stay  at  Altona  was  short,  and  about  the  beginning  of  the 
year  1800  he  removed  to  Hamburg. 

The  epidemic  of  scarlatina  still  claimed  numerous  victims,  and 
Hahnemann's  success  at  Konigslutter  in  the  prevention  and  treat- 
ment had  been  so  great  that  the  name  of  the  remedy  there  used 
was  demanded. 

He  now  published  a  letter  in  the  Reichanzeigo  Jouriial  for 

*  Monthly  Horn.  Review,  Vol.  31,  p.  622. 


J 


EPIDEMIC   OP  SCARLATINA.  59 

May  12,  1800  (Gotha),  in  which  he  stated  that  he  was  about  to 
issue  a  pamphlet  giving  a  complete  history  of  the  Konigslutter 
epidemic,  with  an  account  of  his  treatment,  and  the  name  and 
method  of  preparation  of  his  prophylactic  and  remedy.  But,  he  also 
stated,  that  before  he  could  publish  this  he  must  have  300  sub- 
scribers at  one  Friedrich  d'or  each,  pledged  to  take  the  work,  to 
each  of  whom  he  would  give  a  quantity  of  the  remedy  with  full 
directions  for  its  proper  use. 

He  added,  in  the  way  of  excuse,  that  he  deserved  something 
both  from  the  public  and  from  the  Government  for  his  most  im- 
portant discovery. 

This  statement  gained  for  him  very  few  subscribers,  but  a  vast 
amount  of  abuse  and  calumny.  He  was  accused  of  seeking  to 
obtain  money  under  false  pretenses.  The  physicians  declared 
that  the  substance  he  employed  was  a  violent  poison  that  would 
profoundly  affect  the  health,  and  that  he  dare  not  announce  its 
name. 

Hahnemann  justified  his  course  by  saying  that  he  wished  the 
trial  to  be  made  by  a  medicine  prepared  carefully  by  his  own 
hands,  and  not  in  the  careless  manner  in  which  drugs  were  so 
often  prepared;  that  he  had  no  intention  of  keeping  the  truth 
from  the  profession,  but  considered  himself  entitled  to  some 
honorarium.     This  refutation  he  published  in  December,  1800. 

Again,  in  the  Allgevieiner  Anzezg-er  for  Vehrusiry  7,  1801  (No. 
32),  he  published  the  following  article  addressed  to  the  phy- 
sicians of  Germany: 

"  Considerations  Upon  the  Liberality  of  the  Medical  Fraternity 
at  the  Commencement  of  the  Nineteenth  Century."* 

He  reviewed  the  professional  jealousy  of  physicians;  cited  ex- 
amples of  the  abuse  that  had  in  the  past  fallen  on  discoverers, 
such  as  Wichmann,  Hufeland,  Tode,  Sommering;  recalled  the 
attacks  on  himself  after  his  chemical  discoveries  regarding  Afer- 
cury;  the  constant  abuse  of  his  New  Principle  of  Healing. 

"  Now,"  he  says,  "  once  more,  at  the  end  of  the  century  that 
has  just  expired,  my  zeal  for  the  welfare  of  mankind  misled  me 
to  announce  a  prophylactic  remedy  for  one  of  the  most  destruc- 
tive of  children's  diseases,  scarlet  fever.  Scarcelj^  a  fourth  part 
of  the  number  I  might  have  expected  subscribed  for  it.  This 
lukewarm  interest  shown  for  such  an  important  affair  discouraged 

*"  Lesser  Writings,"  New  York,  1852,  p.  365. 


6o  I.IFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

me,  and  I  arranged  that  the  subscribers  should  receive  a  portion 
of  the  medicine  itself,  in  order  to  satisfy  them,  in  case  my  book 
on  the  subject  should  not  be  published.  The  subscribers  con- 
sisted chiefly  of  physicians  who  had  epidemics  of  scarlet  fever 
in  their  neighborhood.  At  least  thirty  of  these,  whom  I  begged 
by  letter  to  testify  to  the  truth  and  to  publish  the  result,  be  it 
what  it  might,  in  the  Reichsanzeiger,  made  no  reply." 

Certainly  not  fair  to  Hahnemann  after  he  had  given  the  medi- 
cine, and  had  only  asked,  as  he  always  did,  for  but  a  fair  trial. 
And  with  the  fact  before  us,  that  Belladonna  is  by  all  now  recog- 
nized as  a  valuable  preventive  of  scarlet  fever,  it  becomes  still 
more  certain  that  this  action  on  the  part  of  the  physicians  did 
indeed  arise  from  bigotry  and  envy,  as  Hahnemann  declared. 

He  continues  in  argumentative  form  regarding  the  use  of 
Mercury  and  of  the  Belladomia,  and  its  value  in  scarlet  fever, 
expostulates  against  the  prejudice  of  one  Dr.  Jani,  who'  at  first 
published  articles  in  favor  and  then  against  this  remedy,  and 
declares  that  the  common  object  which  physicians  must  at- 
tain can  only  be  gained  by  unity,  mutual  intercommunication 
and  brotherly  friendship.  And  lastly,  these  words:  "Physicians 
of  Germany,  be  brothers,  be  fair,  be  just!" 

When  we  consider  the  fact  that  heretofore  Hahnemann  had 
always  been  willing  to  freely  impart  any  and  all  of  his  discove- 
ries to  his  brethren;  when  in  ever}^  book  he  had  translated  he 
had  freely  given  of  the  treasure  of  his  memory  and  of  his  inven- 
tion; when  we  remember  that  just  as  soon  as  he  became  satisfied 
of  its  truth  he  announced  to  the  world  the  discovery  of  the  new 
law  of  similia;  when  we  read  his  essay  on  that  subject,  with  its 
wealth  of  careful  advice  and  argument,  we  certainly  cannot  for 
one  moment  think  that  he  withheld  the  name  of  the  Belladomia 
from  any  sordid  motive  of  concealing  from  the  world  a  useful 
remedy. 

Is  it  not  more  probable  that  by  this  plan  he  wished  to  ensure 
for  his  prophylactic  fair  treatment  ?  He  had  but  just  been  driven 
from  Konigslutter,  where  he  had  done  so  much  good  with  this 
same  medicine;  he  had  been  compelled  to  give  up  his  practice, 
to  lose  his  child  by  an  accident  incident  to  his  moving.  He  was 
poor.  He  wished  some  recompense  as  a  discoverer.  He  wished 
unbiased  treatment. 

So  very  much  has  been  written  about  Hahnemann  as  the  dis- 


EPIDEMIC    OF   SCARIvATINA.  6 1 

penser  of  secret  remedies,  meaning  this  fact  of  the  Belladonna, 
that  before  judging  him  it  is  but  just  to  examine  carefully  all  the 
circumstances  of  the  case.  This  is  the  only  time  when  he  did 
not  at  once  freely  give  to  the  world  every  discovery  that  he 
made.  And  judging  the  past  and  the  future  of  the  man,  is  it 
not  fairer  to  decide  that  he  hid  the  name  of  this  remedy  for  some 
good  and  sufficient  purpose,  perhaps  thinking  that  were  the  sub- 
scribers compelled  to  pay  for  the  knowledge  they  would  give  it 
more  careful  consideration. 

The  article  on  "  L^iberality  "  was  the  last  that  he  wrote  in  a 
spirit  of  conciliation.  After  that  he  viewed  his  detractors  with 
disfavor  and  contempt.  From  this  time  he  steadily  and  in  a 
dignified  way  followed  his  medical  researches  and  discoveries, 
and  responded  but  very  seldom  to  tne  attacks  of  the  doc- 
tors. 

He  did  not  wait  for  his  three  hundred  subscribers,  but  in  1801 
published  the  secret  of  the  discovery  of  the  prophylactic  proper- 
ties of  Belladonna  in  scarlet  fever  in  a  small  pamphlet  printed 
at  Gotha.  It  was  called:  "Cure  and  Prevention  of  Scarlet 
Fever."  *  In  the  preface  he  says  that  had  he  compiled  a  large 
book  on  scarlet  fever  he  would  have  gotten,  through  the  usual 
channels  of  publication,  as  much  of  an  honorarium  as  from  the 
subscribers  of  the  pamphlet.  But  as  he  wished  to  interest  the 
many,  he  adopted  the  more  popular  form  of  the  small  book.  He 
gives  a  history  of  the  epidemic  of  smallpox  reaching  Konigs- 
lutter,  the  scarlet  fever  mixing  with  it;  the  final  disappearance 
of  the  smallpox  and  the  spread  of  the  scarlet  fever. 

The  symptoms  of  the  disease  are  carefully  detailed,  its  great 
mortality,  his  treatment  with  small  doses  of  Opium  and  Ipecac, 
and  then  under  the  heading:  "Prevention  against  Scarlet 
Fever,"  he  gives  the  particulars  of  his  discovery  of  Belladonna. 

He  says:  "The  mother  of  a  large  family,  at  the  commence- 
ment of  July,  1799,  when  the  fever  was  most  prevalent  and  fatal, 
had  got  a  new  counterpane  made  up  by  a  seamstress  who,  with- 
out the  knowledge  of  the  former,  had  in  her  small  chamber  a 
boy  just  recovering  from  scarlet  fever.  The  mother  received  the 
counterpane  and  smelled  it  to  be  sure  that  it  contained  no  bad 
odors.  She  then  laid  it  on  the  sofa  pillow,  and  took  a  nap  the 
same  afternoon  on  the  same  pillow.      A  week  later  she  became 

*"  Lesser  Writings, "  New  York,  1852. 


62  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

ill  with  the  sore  throat.  Her  daughter,  ten  years  old,  soon  after 
manifested  marked  symptoms  of  scarlet  fever."  Hahnemann, 
judging  from  her  symptoms,  says:  "My  memory  and  my  writ- 
ten collection  of  the  peculiar  effects  of  some  medicines  furnished 
me  with  no  remedy  so  capable  of  producing  a  counterpart  of  the 
symptoms  here  present  as  Belladoyina.'' 

No  guess  work,  only  the  application  of  the  new  law,  and  this 
valuable  preventive  was  discovered. 

He  gave  her  the  one  four  hundred  and  thirty-two  thousandth 
part  of  a  grain  of  Belladonna,  with  the  result  that  in  about  twenty- 
four  hours  she  became  well.  He  next  gave  the  remedy  to  other 
children,  who  did  not  take  the  disease  although  exposed. 

He  writes  :  "I  reasoned  thus,  a  remedy  that  is  capable  of 
quickly  checking  a  disease  in  its  onset,  must  be  its  best  preven- 
tive; and  the  following  occurrence  strengthened  me  in  the  cor- 
rectness of  this  conclusion:  Some  weeks  previously  three  children 
of  another  family  lay  ill  of  a  very  bad  scarlet  fever;  the  eldest 
daughter  alone,  who,  up  to  that  period,  had  been  taking  Bella- 
donna internally  for  an  external  aifection  on  the  joints  of  her 
fingers,  to  my  great  astonishment  did  not  catch  the  fever,  although 
during  the  prevalence  of  other  epidemics  she  had  alwa3^s  been  the 
first  to  take  them.  This  circumstance  completely  confirmed  my 
idea.  I  now  hesitated  not  to  administer  to  the  other  five  chil- 
dren of  this  numerous  family  this  divine  remedy,  as  a  preserva- 
tive, in  very  small  doses,  and,  as  the  particular  action  of  this 
plant  does  not  last  above  three  daj^s,  I  repeated  the  dose  every 
seventy-two  hours,  and  they  all  remained  perfectly  well  without 
the  slightest  symptoms  throughout  the  whole  course  of  the  epi- 
demic, and  amid  the  most  virulent  scarlatina  emanations  from 
the  sisters  who  lay  ill  with  the  disease." 

He  then  gives  preparations  for  preparing  the  remedy  and  pre- 
scribes the  quantity  to  be  used. 

This  publication  did  not  silence  his  enemies.  They  ridiculed 
his  minute  doses  of  Belladonna,  and  laughed  at  its  power  to  pre- 
vent the  spread  of  scarlatina.  Hahnemann,  then,  in  Hiif eland' s 
Journal,  Vol.  13,  part  2,  January,  1801,  published  another 
essay  on  "Small  Doses  of  Medicine  in  General,  and  of  Bella- 
donna in  Particular."  In  this  he  argues  on  the  divisibility  of  medi- 
cine and  its  increase  of  power  by  subdivision,  and  supports  his 
doses  of  Belladojuia  as  previously  given. 


CURIOUS  PREFACE  TO  THESAURUS  MEDICAMINUM.  63 

Afterwards  many  phj^sicians  bore  testimony  to  the  truth  of 
this  discovery.  Hufeland  testified  to  its  value  as  a  prophylactic; 
articles  appeared  in  his  Jojirnal  regarding  its  virtues  in  May, 
1812;  November,  1824;  November,  1825.  Hufeland  himself  wrote 
a  work  in  1825,  entitled  "The  Prophylactic  Power  of  Bella- 
donna," and  in  this  he  justly  gives  Hahnemann  the  credit  of  his 
discovery.  He  also  adduces  a  great  deal  of  testimony  to  prove 
this  assertion.* 

Twenty  years  later,  while  Hahnemann  resided  in  I^eipsic,  cer- 
tain of  the  physicians  of  that  city  recommended  the  use  of  Bel- 
ladonna as  a  prophylactic  in  scarlet  fever,  but  did  not  mention  the 
fact  that  Hahnemann  had  twenty  years  earlier  discovered  this.. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

CURIOUS    PREFACE   TO    THESAURUS    MEDICAMINUM  —  AIvKALI 

PNEUM — MOLLEN — EII^ENBURG — MACHERN — 

DESSAU — TORGAU. 

In  the  year  1800  Hahnemann  translated  from  the  Knglish  the 
"Thesaurus  Medicaminum,"  which  was  a  collection  of  medical 
prescriptions. 

This  translation  was  published  anonymously,  the  notes  by 
Hahnemann  being  signed  "  Y." 

He,  however,  in  a  spirit  of  grim  satire,  wrote  an  original  pre- 
face, in  which  he  says:  "I  have  translated  the  book  entitled 
'  Thesaurus  Medicaminum,  a  New  Collection  of  Medical  Prescrip- 
tions,' etc.  If,  as  the  preface  to  the  original  informs  me,  even  in 
lyOndon,  medical  frankness  requires  the  aegis  of  anonymousness, 
in  order  to  escape  being  chid;  I  need  not  say  a  word  as  to  its  ex- 
pediency for  some  time  past  in  oar  own  dear  fatherland.  *  *  =^ 
But  how,  it  will  be  asked,  did  the  writer  of  the  notes,  no  friend 
to  compound  medicines,  come  to  edit  this  work  ?  To  which  I 
answer,  solely  for  that  very  reason.  I  wished  to  show  my  country- 
men that  the  very  best  prescriptions  have  a  hitch  somewhere,, 
are  unnatural,  contradictory  and  opposed  to  the  object  for  which 

*Hufeland  in  1830  published  an  essay  on  Homoeopathy  which  may  be 
found  in  the  "British  Journal  of  Homoeopath}';"  vol.  16,  p.  177. 


64  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

they  are  designed.  This  is  a  truth  that  should  be  proclaimed 
from  the  housetops  in  our  prescription-loving  times." 

He  continues  to  argue  against  compound  prescriptions  and  in 
favor  of  single  remedies;  says  that  two  or  more  substances 
mingled  do  not  have  the  same  effect  as  given  singly,  and,  in  fact, 
condemns  the  use  of  the  book  itself. 

In  the  notes  he  denounces  the  body  of  the  work.  In  one  case 
where  five  remedies  are  given  in  one  prescription,  he  suggests 
including,  also,  the  entire  Materia  Medica.  He  ridicules  placing 
drugs  antagonistic  to  each  other  in  the  same  prescription,  and 
advises  a  return  to  the  simple  methods  of  Hippocrates. 

As  he  did  no  more  translating  at  this  time,  it  is  very  probable 
that  his  suggestions  did  not  enhance  the  sale  of  the  book,  and 
that  the  bookseller  for  whom  he  worked  was  anything  but  satis- 
fied with  him. 

In  1801  he  published  in  Hiif eland' s  Journal  sovn^  observations 
on  "  Brown's  Elements  of  Medicine,"  in  which  he  again  pleads 
against  the  use  of  so  many  drugs  in  one  prescription,  and 
earnestly  recommends  simpler  methods  of  treatment. 

With  the  exception  of  "  Von  Haller's  Materia  Medica,"  trans- 
lated in  1806,  this  was  the  last  of  Hahnemann's  translations. 

A  circumstance  that  happened  while  Hahnemann  lived  in 
Hamburg  has  been  extensively  used  by  his  detractors  to  impeach 
his  honesty.  He  announced  the  discovery  of  a  new  chemical 
salt  that  he  called  "  Alkali  Pneicm.^'  It  was  offered  for  sale,  but 
upon  analysis  it  proved  to  be  Borax. 

According  to  the  most  reliable  statements  this  must  have  been 
about  the  year  1800.  Crell  published  an  article  about  it  in  that 
year,  and  the  result  of  its  analysis  was  given  in  1801.  When 
he  first  discovered  it  is  not  known,  probably  some  years  earlier, 
when  he  was  so  deeply  interested  in  chemical  discovery. 

This  mistake  his  enemies  have  ever  since  been  quoting  as  a 
proof  that  he  not  only  sold  secret  remedies,  but  palmed  off  under 
anew  name  a  well-known  substance.  The  ''  Alkali pJiemn''  and 
the  Belladonna  secret  have  been  mentioned  in  every  book  that 
has  been  written  against  Hahnemann,  and  their  number  is  many, 
in  the  last  hundred  years.  In  fact,  it  is  impossible  for  the  gen- 
tlemen who  denounce  him  and  his  system  to  find  an)-  other 
circumstance  of  his  long  life  with  which,  in  the  slightest 
manner,  to  assail  his  honesty.     The  facts  of  these  two  cases,  to 


CURIOUS  PREFACE  TO  THESAURUS  MEDICAMINUM.  65 

an  unbiased  person,  do  not  show  any  swerving  from  the  strict 
honor  by  which  his  entire  life  was  guided  and  influenced. 

Ameke  says  :*  "The  chemists  of  that  day  were  seeking  new 
substances.  Prof.  Klaproth,  one  of  the  first  chemists  of  the  day, 
discovered  a  new  substance,  'diamond  spar  ;'  it  was  a  mistake. 
Proust  discovered  '  sal  mirabile  peidaticm,'  a  salt  of  pearl,  in  the 
urine  ;  it  was  supposed  to  be  a  combination  of  Soda  with  a  new 
acid  (pearl  acid)  ;  it  was  found  to  be  the  already  known  Phos- 
phate of  Soda. 

"Van  Ruprecht,  a  chemist,  discovered  Borbonhim  in  baryta, 
Partheman  in  chalk,  Austruin  in  magnesia  ;  the  sedative  salt 
{Boracic  acid)  was  supposed  to  have  been  reduced  to  a  metal ;  on 
examination  these  discoveries  were  found  to  be  iron,  probably 
derived  from  impure  Hessian  crucibles. 

''Borax  had  long  been  an  object  of  especial  attention  to 
chemists.  Prof.  Fuchs  wrote,  in  1784,  a  monograph  on  it,  with 
a  historical  account  of  the  views  as  to  its  composition,  which, 
in  1784,  were  still  uncertain  and  contradictory.  He  says  in  the 
preface:  'We  know  very  little  about  borax,  and  are  not  yet 
agreed  as  to  its  composition,  for  one  says  it  contains  this  sub- 
stance and  another  that.'  Metherie  gave  the  constituents  of 
Boracic  acid  as  atmospheric  air,  inflammable  gas,  caloric  and 
water. 

"In  1800,  '  Crell's  Annalen '  published  an  article  of  four 
pages  entitled,  '  Pneumlaugensalz,  endeckt  von  Herrn  Dr. 
-Samuel  Hahnemann,'  in  which  the  latter  describes  the  proper- 
ties of  a  new  kind  of  fixed  alkali, called  '  Alkali pneuvi''  from  its 
property  of  swelling  out  to  twenty  times  its  size  when  heated  to 
redness.     This  article  was  copied  into  other  journals. 

"Hahnemann  had  worked  zealously  as  an  amateur  in  the  field 
of  chemistry  for  twenty  years,  and  with  the  most  valuable  re- 
sults for  chemistry  and  for  the  welfare  of  mankind.  He  never 
obtained  any  assistance  from  the  State,  or  any  other  source,  and 
was  not  even  able  to  fit  up  a  proper  laboratory,  such  as  the 
apothecaries  possessed.  Disinterested  love  of  research  and  of 
science  had  made  him  go  to  great  expense  for  a  laboratory, 
costly  reagents,  etc.  Thinking  he  had  made  a  very  valuable 
■discovery,  he  handed  over  his  Alkali  pne^ivi  to  an  agent  in 
I^eipsic,  who  sold  it  for  a  Friedrichs  d'or  the  ounce. 

*  "Ameke's  History  of  Homceopathy,''  page  288. 


66  IvIFE    OP    HAHNEMANN. 

"Professors  Klaproth,  Karsten  and  Hermbstadt  analyzed  the- 
new  alkali,  and  found  that  it  was  Bo7'ax.  Instead  of  communi- 
cating their  results  to  Hahnemann,  who  had  given  proofs  enough 
that  he  was  striving  after  the  same  objects  as  themselves,  and 
asking  him  for  an  explanation,  they  published  their  discovery 
in  the  Jenacr  LiteratiLV  Zeitung,  1801,  and  called  Hahnemann  to 
account. 

"Prof.  Trommsdorfif,  who  owned  an  apothecary  shop,  hastened 
to  communicate  this  incident  to  a  larger  public  in  the  Reichan- 
zeiger,  the  name  then  borne  by  the  Allege77ieine  Anzeiger  der 
Deutsche}!,  and  called  Hahnemann's  proceeding  'unexampled 
impudence.'     Crell  lamented  Hahnemann's  'great  mistake.'  " 

Hahnemann  at  once  explained  the  matter  in  several  journals, 
among  others  in  Prof.  A.  N.  Sdh^r&f  s  Journal  der  Chemie  (1801, 
p.  665). 

He  said:  "  I  am  incapable  of  willfully  deceiving.  I  may,  like 
other  men,  be  unintentionally  mistaken.  I  am  in  the  same  boat 
with  Klaproth  and  his  ' Diamond  spar,'  and  with  Proust  and  his 
'Pearl  salt.'  I  had  before  me  some  crude  (probably  Chinese) 
Borax,  supplied  by  J.  N.  Nahrmann,  of  Hamburg.  A  solution 
of  Potash  dropped  into  a  filtered  ley  of  Borax,  not  yet  crystal- 
lizable,  precipitated  a  large  floury  saline  sediment  As  authors 
assure  us  that  pure  Borax  is  rendered  uncrystallizable  by  the 
addition  of  Potash,  is  it  wonderful  that  I  took  the  new  precipi- 
tate for  some  new  substance  ?  " 

Hahnemann  devoted  some  space  to  the  explanation  of  this 
mistake,  and  adds  that  he  has  refunded  all  the  money  he  re- 
ceived from  the  sale  of  the  substance. 

•  Six  years  later  he  writes  in  the  Allg.  Anzicger  der  Deiitsch  : 
"  If  I  once  made  an  error  in  chemistry,  for  to  err  is  human,  I 
was  the  first  to  acknowledge  it  as  soon  as  I  was  better  in- 
formed." * 

Dr.  Rummel,  in  his  oration  at  the  unveiling  of  Hahnemann's 
statue  at  Leipsic,  in  1852,  mentions  this  story  as  follows:  "The 
spirit  of  calumny  raked  up  an  incident  that  occurred  in  Hahne- 
mann's past  career,  and  repeatedly  threw  in  his  teeth  a  mistake 
he  had  committed  long  ago,  although  he  had  made  the  most 
honorable  reparation  for  it.  In  former  times  he  imagined  he 
had  discovered  a  new  substance,   namely,  the  Alkali pneiivi.     It 

*See  Ameke,  pages  288-92.     Also  Brit.  Jour.  Honi.,  vol.  17,  p.  no. 


CURIOUS  PREFACE  TO  THESAURUS  MEDICAMINUM.  67 

was  afterwards  found  that  he  had  made  a  mistake,  and  that  it 
was  Borax.  As  soon  as  he  became  aware  of  this,  he  unhesitat- 
ingly repaid  the  money  he  had  received  for  it." 

That  Hahnemann  maliciously  offered  the  Borax  for  sale  is  in 
no  manner  probable;  and  yet  his  action  has  been  called  "  an  im- 
position upon  the  public."  If  he  had  known  that  this  substance 
was  reall)^  not  new,  would  he  have  dared  to  so  publish  the  dis- 
covery, even  had  he  wished  to  defraud  ?  There  was  nothing 
dishonorable  about  it,  and  in  the  state  of  chemistry  at  that  time,, 
it  was  only  the  mistake  of  one  self-taught  chemist,  when  all 
chemists  were  also  guilty  of  mistakes. 

Hahnemann  remained  at  Hamburg  until  about  the  year  1802, 
when  he  went  to  the  little  town  of  Mollen,  in  the  Duchy  of 
Lauenburg,  fourteen  miles  from  I^ubeck.  Here  the  old  longing 
for  the  fatherland  took  possession  of  the  wanderer,  and  he 
journeyed  to  Eilenburg,  in  beloved  Saxony.  But  he  was  not 
allowed  to  remain  there  ;  the  medical  health  officer,  or  physikus, 
of  the  place,  drove  him  away,  by  his  persecutions,  in  a  very 
short  time. 

From  thence  he  went  to  Machern,  a  small  village  about  four 
leagues  from  I^eipsic.  He  was  very  poor  during  this  period  of 
his  life. 

Dudgeon  writes:*  "This  anecdote,  related  me  by  a  member 
of  Hahnemann's  family,  conveys  some  idea  of  the  poverty  they 
endured.  During  his  residence  at  Machern,  after  toiling  all  day 
long  at  his  task  of  translating  works  for  the  press,  he  frequently 
assisted  his  brave-hearted  wife  to  wash  the  family  clothes  at 
night,  and,  as  they  were  unable  to  purchase  soap,  they 
employed  raw  potatoes  for  this  purpose.  The  quantity  of  bread 
he  was  enabled  to  earn  by  his  literary  labors  for  his  numerous 
family  was  so  small  that  in  order  to  prevent  grumbling,  he  used 
to  weigh  out  to  each  an  equal  proportion.  At  this  period  one 
of  his  little  daughters  fell  ill,  and  being  unable  to  eat  the  por- 
tion of  daily  bread  that  fell  to  her  share,  she  carefully  put  it 
away  in  a  box,  hoarding  it  up,  childlike,  till  her  appetite  should 
return.  Her  sickness,  however,  increasing,  she  felt  assured  that 
she  should  never  recover  to  enjoy  her  store;  so  she  one  day  told 
her  favorite  little  sister  that  she  knew  she  was  going  to  die — 
that  she  should  never  be  able  to  eat  any  more,  and  solemnly 

*  "  Biography  of  Hahnemann." 


'68  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

made  over  to  her  as  a  gift  the  accumulated  fragments  of  hard, 
dried-up  bread,  from  which  she  had  anticipated  such  a  feast  had 
she  recovered." 

From  Machern  Hahnemann  went  to  Wittenberg,  departing 
•soon  after  for  Dessau.  Here  he  lived  for  two  years.  The  exact 
time  of  his  life  in  the  above  places  is  very  uncertain.  Hartmann, 
his  pupil,  frankly  confesses  that  he  does  not  know. 

It  is  probable  that  Hahnemann  left  Hamburg  the  last  of  1801 
or  the  beginning  of  1802.  He  could  not  have  remained  long  in 
any  one  place.  He  was  poor  and  persecuted,  driven  from  town 
to  town.  He  spent  about  two  years  at  Dessau,  and  by  the  evi- 
dence of  a  letter  written  to  the  patient  "X,"  he  was  settled  at 
Torgau  in  June,  1805.  Thisletter  is  dated  Torgau,  June  21,  1805.* 

He  gave  up  practice  when  he  left  Hamburg  and  did  not 
resume  it  until  he  reached  Torgau.  During  this  time  he 
devoted  himself  to  his  researches  and  writings.  He  resumed 
practice  at  Torgau,  and  continued  it  until  the  end  of  his  life. 
Hartmann  and  Rapou  mention  1806  as  the  year  of  his  removal 
to  Torgau,  but  by  this  letter  it  would  seem  to  have  been  in 
1805.  He  remained  at  Torgau  until  181 1,  when  he  went  to 
Ivcipsic. 

As  his  essays  in  the  medical  journals  only  brought  him  oppo- 
sition and  obloquy  from  his  confreres,  Hahnemann  ceased  writ- 
ing for  them,  and  after  this  published  his  articles  in  the  All^e- 
meijie  Anzeiger  der  Deiitschen,  a  magazine  of  general  literature 
and  science. t 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

ESSAY   ON^COFFEE — MEDICINE   OF   EXPERIENCE — DENIAL   OF 

FALSE   REPORT   ABOUT  SCARLATINA — .^eSCULAPIUS 

IN   THE    BALANCE. 

Hartmann,  in  his  "Life  of  Hahnemann."  published  in  1844, 
saysij  "Notwithstanding  a  multiplicity  of  inquiry  and  re- 
search, it  cannot  be' ascertained  how  long  he  resided  at  Eilen- 
burg,  nor  is  it  even  known  how  long  he  lived  at  Machern,  a  vil- 

*3Ionthly  Horn.  Review,  Vol.  31,  p.  621. 

fDudgeon's  Biography." 

XAllg.  Horn.  Zeit.,  Vol.  26,  p.  161.     (April  29,  1S44.) 


ESSAY   ON    COFFKE.  69, 

lage  situated  four  leagues  from  lyeipsic  and  two  from  Wurtzen. 
We  know,  however,  from  definite  sources  that  the  following 
works  were  the  products  of  his  mental  activity  during  his  sojourn 
of  about  two  years  in  Dessau,  whither  he  had  gone  from  Wit- 
tenberg, so  as  to  devote  more  time  to  the  elaboration  of  the 
homoeopathic  method  of  healing:  "Coffee  and  Its  Effects," 
published  b}^  Steinacker,  I^eipsic,  1803.  "^sculapius  in  the 
Balance,"  lyeipsic,  1805.  "Medicine  of  Experience,"  Wittig, 
Berlin,  1805  (a  highly  intellectual  treatise  appearing  as  the  fore- 
runner of  his  "Organon,"  published  in  1810).  Also,  "Frag- 
menta  de  viribus  medicamentorum,  positivis  sive  in  sano  corpore 
humano  observatis,"  1805. 

"  He  resided  with  the  Medical  Assessor  named  Hasler,  who. 
was  at  that  time  the  owner  of  the  apothecary  shop,  and  he  lived 
by  himself  and  in  his  study,  laying  aside  all  medical  practice, 
which  he  resumed  when  he  went  to  Torgau  in  1806,  and  again 
reminded  the  non-medical  public  of  himself  through  brief  arti- 
cles published  in  the  Reichs  Anzeiger.'" 

One  of  these  articles  is  as  follows  (No.  191,  July  21,  1806): 
"censure  of  an  unfounded  report." 

"  Five  years  ago  a  malicious  report  got  into  circulation  among- 
very  young  German  physicians,  and  it  has  been  revived  in  many- 
books  and  at  most  of  the  medical  schools,  that  I  (Dr.  Samuel 
Hahnemann)  have  promulgated  an  alleged  means,  or  remedy,, 
for  preventing  scarlet  fever,  and  have  thereby  deceived  the  piibr 
lie,  since  experience  has  proved  that  Belladonna  is  no  preserva- 
tive against  scarlet  fever. 

"  Besides  being  so  revolting  to  my  feelings  as  such  an  auda- 
cious and,  as  will  be  shown,  unfounded  accusation,  must  be, 
because  my  character  has  been  blameless  during  the  whole  of 
the  thirty  years  of  my  literary  and  private  life,  to  say  nothing  of 
my  being  a  cosmopolite  and  benefactor  of  all  mankind,  I  regret 
exceedingly  that  so  large  a  number  of  my  German  fellow-citizens, 
should  circulate  against  me  a  false  report,  which  might  readily 
be  considered  by  their  posterity  as  a  slander,  coming  from  me 
as  a  citizen.  However,  I,  myself,  will  call  this  revolting  report 
only  an  error,  and  not  a  slander,  because  ignorance  is  the  basis, 
of  it;  and  only  an  untruth  intended  to  defame,  and  of  the  ground- 
lessness of  which  the  promulgator  is  convinced,  can  be  called  a 
slander. 


70  IvIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

"But  this  malicious  and  widel}''  spread  error  rests  upon  what 
the  non-partisan  public,  in  whose  estimable  presence  I  have 
never  knowingly  asserted  an  untruth,  will  conclude  from  the 
following  true,  historical  account  of  the  matter. 

"At  the  time  that  I  made  known  the  discovery  that  scarlet 
fever  can  be  prevented  with  certainty  by  small  doses  of  Bella- 
donna, there  had  broken  out  (in  the  year  1800),  at  a  great  dis- 
tance from  me  in  Central  Germany,  a  new  epidemic,  the 
malignant  purple  fever,  against  which  physicians,  just  as  if  it 
were  the  old  and  real  scarlet  fever,  did  not  hesitate  to  use  my 
remedy,  and  for  the  most  part  with  fruitless  results.  This  was 
perfectly  natural,  since  they  used  it  against  an  entirely  different 
disease.  For  the  old  true  scarlet  fever,  with  its  bright,  smooth, 
red  blotches,  has  in  its  actual  signs,  scarcely  a  remote  resem- 
blance to  this  new  disease,  which  has  so  mysteriously  appeared 
in  the  West  of  Germany." 

Hahnemann  then  continues  in  this  article  to  explain  the  epi- 
demic oi  the  real  scarlet  fever,  and  to  set  himself  aright  regard- 
ing his  position  as  to  the  prophylactic  uses  of  Bellado?ina. 

The  essay  against  the  use  of  coffee  was  written  at  a  time 
when  the  Germans  considered  it  a  favorite  beverage,  especially 
the  women,  and  the  very  poor  people,  as  is  tea  with  us  to-da5^ 
It  has  been  published  in  the  "Lesser  Writings,"  and  in  many 
medical  journals,  and  translated  into  several  languages.*  He 
says  that  in  order  to  enjoy  a  long  and  healthy  life,  man  requires 
food  and  drinks  containing  nutritious,  but  not  irritating,  medi- 
cinal parts.  He  describes  medicinal  substances,  and  then  says 
that  coffee  is  a  purely  medicinal  substance  He  describes  at 
length  its  injurious  effects,  recommends  cocoa  unspiced,  in  its 
place;  but  commends  its  medicinal  virtues  for  chronic  ailments 
that  bear  a  great  resemblance  to  its  primary  action. f 

While  living  at  Dessau,  he  published  in  the  Reichs  Anzeiger 
(No.  71,  1803)  an  essay  on  a  "Remedy  for  Hydrophobia. "^ 

In  1805  he  published  an  important  pamphlet  called  "  tEscu- 
lapius  in  the  Balance,"  in  which  he  reviews  his  own  state  of 
•mind  after  he  had  become  disgusted  with  the  practice  of  the  day. 
He  shows  the  lack  of  certainty  and  progress  in  the  art  of  medi- 

*"  Bradford's  Bibliography,"  page  112. 

■\  Am.  Jour.  Horn.,  New  York,  June.  1S35.      Hoin.  Exam.,  August,  1S40. 

J"  Lesser  Writings,  p.  389." 


ESSAY   ON   COFFEE.  7 1 

■  cine,  the  ignorance  of  the  physician  in  compounding,  the  fallacy 

■  of  trusting  to  the  druggist,  who  often  sends  a  different  prescrip- 
tion from  the  chemically  impossible  one  ordered  b}^  the  physi- 
cian, or  substitutes  one  drug  for  another;  or  again  sends  the 
erroneous  compound  as  the  doctor  has  written  for  it.     He  argues 

.against  the  laws  of  the  time,  forbidding  the  preparing  or  dis- 
pensing of  medicine  by  the  physician.  He  says  that  the  pre- 
paration should  not  be  trusted  to  the  apothecary  who  is  not 
responsible,  unless  in  rare  cases,  for  the  result,  but  that  the 
physician  should  understand  how,  and  be  compelled,  to  prepare 
his  own  medicines  so  that  he  may  know  exactly  what  he  is 
giving  to  his  patient,  and  be  certain  that  there  has  been  no  sub- 
stitution nor  mistake  in  the  medicine  given. 

"I  repeat,"  he  says,  "from  the  very  nature  of  the  thing,  I 
repeat,  the  physician  should  be  prohibited,  under  the  severest 
penalties,  from  allowing  any  other  person  to  prepare  the  medi- 
cines required  for  his  patients;  he  should  be  required,  under  the 
severest  penalties,  to  prepare  them  himself,  so  that  he  may  be 
able  to  vouch  for  the  result.  But  that  it  should  be  forbidden 
to  the  physician  to  prepare  his  own  instruments  for  the  saving 
of  life — no  human  being  could  have  fallen  on  such  an  idea  a 
priori. ' ' 

It  must  be  remembered  that  the  man  who  thus  argues  is  not 
a  man  ignorant  of  the  art  of  the  apothecary,  but  one  who  had 
but  a  short  time  before  compiled  and  edited  a  very  important 
book,  giving  in  detail  the  principles  and  practice  of  pharmacy. 
And  yet  Hahnemann  was  forbidden  to  prepare  or  dispense  his 
own  medicines,  and  was  driven  from  place  to  place  because  he 
attempted  to  do  so.  It  is  to  be  presumed  that  he  really  knew 
more  about  the  business  than  most  of  the  members  of  the  Wor- 
shipful Company  of  the  Apothecaries,  who  persecuted  him. 

He  continues  in  this  treatise  as  follows :  "It  would  have  been 
much  more  sensible  to  prohibit  authoritatively,  Titian,  Guido 
Reni,  Michael  Angelo,  Raphael,  Correggio  or  Mengs  from  pre- 
paring their  own  instruments  (their  expressive,  beautiful  and 
durable  colors),  and  have  ordered  them  to  purchase  them  in  some 
shop  indicated.  By  the  purchased  colors  not  prepared  by  them- 
selves, their  paintings,  far  from  being  the  inimitable  masterpieces 
ithey  are,  would  have  been  ordinary  daubs  and  mere  market 
.goods.     And  even  had  they  all  become  mere  common  market 


72  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

goods,  the  damage  would  not  have  been  so  great  as  if  the  life  of 
even  the  meanest  slave  (for  he  too  is  a  man)  should  be  endangered 
by  untrustworthy  health  instruments  (medicines)  purchased  from, 
and  prepared  by  strangers.* 


CHAPTER  XX. 

FIRST    COLLECTION    OF    PROVINGS — THE    LAST    TRANSLATION — 

MEDICINE   OF   EXPERIENCE — THE   ORGANON — ATTACKS 

UPON    ITS    TEACHINGS. 

In  1805  Hahnemann  published  a  very  important  book  in  two 
parts,  written  in  Latin.  It  was  called  "  Fragmenta  de  viribus 
Medicamentorum  positivis  sive  in  sano  corpore  humano  obser- 
vatis." 

Part  I.  contains  the  symptoms  arranged  carefully.  Part  II.  is 
the  Index,  or  Repertory.  He  gives  the  symptoms  produced  by 
drugs  on  the  healthy,  and  at  the  end  of  each  remedy  gives  the 
effects  recorded  by  previous  observers  in  cases  of  poisoning. 
The  remedies  given  are:  Aeonitum  napelhis ;  Acris  tinctura 
(Hahnemann's  Causticuni) ;  Arnica  monta7ia;  Atropa  belladonna; 
Laiivus  caviphoya ;  Lytta  vesicatoria  {Cantharis) ;  Capsicum 
a^iniLum  ;  Chamoniilla  77iatricaria ;  Cincho7ia  offi.ci7ialis  et  7'egia  ; 
Cocculus  7)ie7iisper77iu77t;  Copaifera  balsa7nut7i;  C7ipr7C77i  vitriolatjwi, 
Digitalis  purpurea;  Drosera  roUmdifolia ;  Hyoscya77ius  7iiger ; 
Igjiatia  a77ia7-a ;  Ipecacua7iha ;  Ledu77i  pahistre ;  Hellebo7-us 
7iiger ;  Daphiie  viezereuTTi ;  Strychnos  nux  voTTiica  I.;  Papaver 
S077inife7'ui7i  {ppiu77i)  ;  A7ie7no7ie  pratcTisis  {Pidsatilla)  ;  Rheiwi  ;■ 
Dahira  st7-ainoniu77i  ;    Valeria7ia  officinalis  ;    Veratru77i  albu77t. 

It  is  the  first  collection  ever  made  of  provings  of  medicines 
upon  the  healthy  body,  and  contains  the  records  of  the  symptoms 
produced  in  this  manner  upon  Hahnemann  and  his  fellow 
provers. 

In  1834  Dr.  F.  F.  Quin,  of  England,  edited  this  book  and 
published  it,  in  one  volume,  in  Eondon. 

The  next  year,  1806,  Hahnemann  translated  the  Materia 
Medica  of  Albert  von  Haller,  from  the  Latin.  This  was  the 
last  book  he  translated. 

*"  Lesser  Writings,"  New  York,  page  434. 


FIRST  COLLECTION  OF  PROVINGS.  73 

The  same  year  he  published  at  Berlin  a  pamphlet  entitled 
"The  Medicine  of  Experience."  This  really  was  a  forerunner 
of  the  "Organon  "  It  contains  arguments  in  favor  of  the  new 
system.  He  speaks  of  the  helplessness  of  infant  man  ;  of  the 
powers  that  God  has  allowed  to  develop  within  him  ;  of  the 
great  aid  of  nature  in  healing ;  he  thinks  that  certainly  a 
benevolent  God  must  have  intended  mankind  to  discover  some 
method  of  healing  the  sick  that  is  definitely  governed  by  law. 
He  gives  instruction  in  the  proper  manner  to  allow  the  patient 
to  describe  his  disease,  and  propounds  certain  "Maxims  of 
Experience."  There  are  also  instructions  regarding  the  choice 
and  administration  of  the  proper  remedy. 

He  next  wrote  an  article  for  the  Reichs  Anzeiger  on  the  "Objec- 
tion to  a  Substitute  for  Quinine,  and  to  all  Succedanea."  He 
published  an  article  in  Hiif eland' s  Journal  on  the  same  subject. 

During  the  years  from  1805  to  181 1,  the  time  of  his  stay  in 
Torgau,  he  published  several  articles  in  the  Reichs  Anzeiger. 
They  may  all  be  found  in  Dr.  Dudgeon's  valuable  translation  of 
the  "Lesser  Writings." 

In  the  Allgemeine  Anzeiger  for  July  14,  1808,  he  published  his 
"Letter  to  a  Physician  of  High  Standing  on  Reform  in  Medi- 
cine."    Some  parts  of  this  have  been  quoted  elsewhere. 

The  physician  to  whom  this  was  addressed  was  his  old  and 
always  true  friend,  Dr.  Christian  Wilhelm  Hufeland.  This  let- 
ter is  usually  spoken  of  as  the  letter  to  Hufeland.  In  it  he  gives 
his  own  experience  in  the  practice  of  medicine,  the  reasons  that 
led  him  to  cease  from  practice,  his  efforts  to  discover  some  more 
certain  and  reliable  method  than  any  known  at  that  time.  It  is 
an  analvsis  of  his  hopes  and  feelings.  He  declares  that  God 
must  have  designed  that  mankind  should  be  blessed  with  some 
certain  method  of  healing.  This  belief  can  be  found  in  many  of 
Hahnemann's  writings  ;  he  always  gave  the  praise  to  God,  of 
whom  he  spoke  reverently. 

It  was  during  his  residence  at  Torgau  that  Hahnemann  gave 
to  the  world  his  great  book,  "Organon  der  Rationellen  Heil- 
kunde,"  or  "Organon  of  Rational  Healing."  It  was  published 
in  Dresden,  by  Arnold,  in  18 10. 

In  the  Allgemeine  Anzeiger  for  June  7,  18 10,  had  appeared  a 
resume  of  the  forthcoming  book,  which  was  soon  after  published. 


74  LIFE   OF    HAHNEMANN. 

Hering  says  of  the  publication  of  the  "  Organon:"*  "  It  re- 
quired a  grateful  patient  to  print  the  'Organon;'  it  was  nme 
years  before  the  first  edition  was  sold.  It  is  disgusting  to  state 
how  it  was  received;  it  was,  and  it  remains  forever,  an  inexcu- 
sable meanness  of  the  whole  profession," 

This  is  considered  the  most  important  of  all  Hahnemann's 
books  by  the  members  of  the  Homoeopathic  profession,  as  in  its 
pages  he  has  fully  explained  his  law  of  cure.  It  has  been  called 
the  "Bible  of  Homoeopathy."  It  contains  a  complete  and 
exhaustive  exposition  of  Hahnemann's  discoveries,  experiments, 
and  opinions,  concerning  the  healing  of  the  sick. 

The  title  page  of  the  first  edition  bears  the  following  motto 
from  the  poet  Gellert : 

"The  truth  we  mortals  need 
Us  blest  to  make  and  keep, 
The  All-wise  slightly  covered  o'er, 
But  did  not  bury  deep." 

This  motto  is  changed  in  the  other  editions  to  the  words 
*'Aude  sapere;"  and  the  title  itself  becomes:  "Organon  der 
Heilkunst." 

He  says  in  the  preface  :  ' '  The  results  of  my  convictions  are 
set  forth  in  this  book.  It  remains  to  be  seen,  whether  physi- 
cians, who  mean  to  act  honestly  by  their  conscience  and  by  their 
fellow  creatures,  will  continue  to  stick  to  the  pernicious  tissue 
of  conjectures  and  caprice,  or  can  open  their  eyes  to  the  salutary 
truth. 

"I  must  warn  the  reader  that  indolence,  love  of  ease  and 
obstinacy  preclude  effective  service  at  the  altar  of  truth,  and 
only  freedom  from  prejudice  and  untiring  zeal  qualify  for  the 
most  sacred  of  all  human  occupations,  the  practice  of  the  true 
system  of  medicine. 

"The  physician  who  enters  on  his  work  in  this  spirit  becomes 
directly  assimilated  to  the  Divine  Creator  of  the  world,  whose 
human  creatures  he  helps  to  preserve,  and  whose  approval 
renders  him  thrice  blessed." 

The    book  consists  of  two  parts  :    the  introduction   and  the 

Organon  proper.     The  introduction  is  first  devoted  to  an  analysis 

of  the  imperfect  and  erroneous  method,  distinguishing  the  old 

school  of  medicine.     This   he  calls:     "A  mode  of  cure  with 

*The  Organon,  vol.  i,  p.  245,  Liverpool. 


FIRST   COLIvECTlON   OF   PROVINGS.  75 

medical  substances  of  unknown  quality,  compounded  together, 
applied  to  diseases  arbitrarily  classified  and  arranged  in  refer- 
ence to  their  materiality,  called  Allopathy." 

The  second  part  of  the  introduction  is  filled  with  examples 
from  medical  writings  of  cures  unwittingly  made  by  physicians 
in  accordance  with  the  law  of  the  similars.  These  quotations 
are  made  from  the  writings  of  the  ancients,  from  Hippocrates 
down  through  the  great  list  of  medical  writers,  with,  as  usual, 
careful  references  to  each  one. 

It  is  as  much  a  wonder  of  intimate  research  and  acquaintance 
with  the  medical  literature  of  the  past,  as  is  his  essay  on  Helle- 
bore. 

He  concludes:  "Thus  far  the  great  truth  has  more  than 
once  been  approached  by  physicians.  But  a  transitory  idea  was 
all  that  presented  itself  to  them;  consequently  the  indispensable 
reform  which  ought  to  have  taken  place  in  the  old  school  of  thera- 
peutics, to  make  room  for  the  true  curative  method,  and  a  sys- 
tem of  medicine  at  once  simple  and  certain,  has,  till  the  present 
day,  not  been  effected." 

The  Organon  proper  is  divided  into  paragraphs,  each  one  of 
which  contains  one  or  more  aphorisms  in  regard  to  the  law  of 
Homoeopathy,  and  the  way  in  which  it  should  be  practiced. 
He  gives  full  and  careful  directions  for  preparing  medicines 
homoeopathically;  states  the  proper  size  of  the  dose,  expounds 
at  length  the  doctrines  of  Homoeopathy;  explains  why  such 
small  doses  can,  and  do,  cure  quickly;  gives  full  directions  for 
proving:  in  fact  it  is  a  full  exposition  of  the  new  law,  as  Hahne- 
mann understood  it. 

To  any  one  who  wishes  to  become  more  familiar  with  the 
teachings  of  the  "Organon"  explained  in  a  simple  and  plain 
manner,  it  may  be  stated  that  this  can  be  found  in  an  article  by 
Dr.  Samuel  Lilianthal,  published  in  the  California  Homceopath, 
for  March,  April,  May  and  June,  1889,  under  the  title:  "A 
Catechism  of  Samuel  Hahnemann's  Organon,"  and  which  was 
also  published  in  the  Homoeopathic  World,  for  June  and  July, 
I889,  as  "The  Essence  of  Samuel  Hahnemann's  Organon."  Its 
tenets  may  here  be  found  in  a  nutshell. 

The  five  editions  of  the  Organon,  that  were  published  in 
Hahnemann's  lifetime,  differ  somewhat  from  each  other,  the 
first  edition  is  not  as  full  as  is  the  fifth,  but  the  teaching  is  the 


76  LIFE    OF   HAHNEMANN. 

same;  that  the  duty  of  the  physician  is  to  cure  the  sick  as  easily 
and  as  speedily  as  possible. 

It  may  be  mentioned  here  that  the  Organon  has  been  trans- 
lated into  English,  French,  Italian,  Spanish,  Hungarian, 
Dutch,  Polish,  Russian,  Danish  and  Swedish. 

The  publication  of  this  was  the  signal  for  the  commencement 
of  a  violent  warfare  against  Hahnemann.  He  had  raised  his 
hand  against  the  traditions  of  many  years;  he  had  demonstrated 
to  the  minds  of  many,  that  the  usual  practice  of  medicine  was 
founded  on  nothing  but  the  greatest  uncertainty  and  empiricism; 
he  had  shown  up  the  fallacies  and  inconsistencies  of  the  doctors, 
the  mistakes  and  ignorance  of  many  of  the  apothecaries. 

In  the  place  of  all  this  doubt  and  confusion,  he  had  clearly, 
and  at  length,  proven  that  the  system  called  by  him  that  of  the 
similars,  or  the  positive  method  of  healing,  was  really  based 
upon  a  fixed  and  unalterable  law;  that  homoeopathic  medicines 
really  would  cure  in  a  quicker  and  more  easy  way  than  any 
hitherto  discovered. 

He  was  attacked  in  the  medical  journals  of  the  day,  books 
and  pamphlets  were  fulminated  against  him  and  his  strange 
doctrines.  He  was  called  a  charlatan,  a  quack,  an  ignoramus. 
His  minute  doses  were  declared  to  be  impossible.  His  tests  of 
medicines  were  pronounced  simply  ridiculous. 

Especially  bitter  in  attack  was  one  Dr.  A.  F.  Hecker,  of  Berlin, 
whose  articles  were  published  in  th.eA?inaleu  der gesammtcn  Medi- 
an, Vol.  2.  These  reviews  were  so  virulent  that  even  Hahne- 
mann's opponents  condemned  them.  Hahnemann  did  not  under 
his  own  name  answer  them,  in  fact  he  never  stooped  to  reply  to 
his  numerous  calumniators.  His  son,  Frederick,  however,  pub- 
lished a  Refutation,  in  a  pamphlet  in  1811. 

The  presumption  is  that  Hahnemann  himself  and  not  the  son 
wrote  the  Refutation  to  this  bitter  attack  upon  the  "Organon." 

In  1889  Dr.  R.  E.  Dudgeon  published  in  the  Hoynceopathic 
Wo7id  M\.y-on^  letters  written  by  Hahnemann,  and  extending 
from  the  years  181 1  to  1842.  The  first  letter  is  one  to  Arnold, 
the  publisher  of  his  books.*  By  it,  it  will  be  seen  that  Hahne- 
mann was  very  desirous  that  the  attack  of  Hecker  upon  the 
Organon  should  be  answered.  Dr.  Dudgeon  says  in  the  intro- 
duction to  this  letter:    "Accordingly  a  Refutation  was  prepared, 

*Honi.  World,  Loudou,  Vols.  24,  25. 


FIRST    COLLECTION    OF    PROVINGS.  77 

nominally  by  his  son,  but  to  those  familiar  with  the  father's 
writings,  it  is  easy  to  see  who  guided  the  junior  Hahnemann's 
hand,  ^ic  *  >ic  ;i<  As  Frederick  Hahnemann  was  quite  a  young 
man  when  this  masterly  Refutation  of  Hecker  was  written,  and 
had  not  yet  graduated,  it  is  extremely  doubtful  if  he  had  much 
to  do  with  this  learned  anti-critique  beyond  lending  his  name  to 
it,  and  possibly  writing  it  out  to  his  father's  dictation."* 

The  letter  concerning  the  publication  of  this  refutation  is  as 
follows: 
"  My  Dear  Mr.  Arnold: 

"  I  wish  you  had  read  Hecker's  abusive  article  against  me; 
you  would  then  think  that  the  Refutation  is  only  too  moderate. 
You  cannot  wish  that  no  reply  should  have  been  made  by  my 
son  to  those  shameful  accusations.  In  such  cases  every  author 
should  know  best  what  answer  he  should  make.  You  then  re- 
turned the  manuscript  in  order  that  some  alterations  should  be 
made.  (Who  was  it  marked  these  passages  ?  Was  it  you  or  was 
it  Rober?  If  the  latter,  he  must  have  already  read  the  manu- 
script and  considered  the  remainder  faultless  !)  Look  now — 
though  the  author  did  not  consider  it  necessary,  yet  to  please 
you  he  altered  and  modified  those  passages.  You  could  not 
desire  more,  nor  could  you  ask  more.  And  when  this  is  done, 
and  yet  your  censor  does  not  allow  the  manuscript  to  pass,  it  is 
not  the  author's  fault  that  it  is  not  printed,  and  that  you  should 
have  made  no  preparations  for  printing  it,  as  the  censure  was 
not  justified. 

"Moreover,  no  censor  can  refuse  to  allow  the  printing  of  a 
defensive  work  in  which  the  assailant  is  repulsed  with  actual 
libels  (which  is  not  the  case  in  this  manuscript),  for  libels  of 
private  persons  concern  not  the  censor,  but  the  author.  If  there 
are  personal  libels  in  the  book,  it  is  not  tlie  censor,  nor  yet 
the  publisher,  but  only  the  author,  who  can  be  legally  prose- 
cuted. Consequently  what  Mr.  Rober  has  written  under  the 
title  is  sham  pretext  for  his  refusal.  The  true  reason  can  be 
nothing  else  than  the  rough  truths  told  of  the  medical  art  in  the 
work.  If  calumnies  could  prevent  the  printing  of  a  book,  then 
Hecker's  abusive  work  would  never  have  passed  the  censure. 
But  we  must  take  into  consideration  the  underhand,  backbiting, 
sneaking  ways  for  which  Dresden  is  distinguished. 

*Hom.  World,  Vol.  24,  p.  202. 


78  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

"The  truths  of  universal  utility  respecting  the  medical  art 
contained  in  this  book,  and  which  constitute  its  chief  value, 
would  assuredly  excite  the  opposition  of  the  Leipsic  professors, 
especially  when  they  learn  that  its  publication  has  been  refused 
in  Dresden.  The  plain  truth  it  contains  would  only  bring  upon 
my  son  annoyances  from  his  teachers,  under  whom  he  still  must 
remain  for  a  short  time,  and  by  whom  he  will  soon  have  to  pass 
the  examination  for  his  degree.  As  yet  none  of  the  professors 
have  seen  the  manuscript,  though  they  will  hear  of  it. 

"The  best  plan  would  be  to  have  the  manuscript  printed  in 
some  small  place  where  there  does  not  exist  any  great  prejudice 
in  favor  of  the  traditional  medicine,  out  of  which  there  is  no 
salvation;  where  such  (truthful)  denials  of  its  claims  would  not 
be  thought  so  much  of;  or  where  the  official  doctor,  if  there  is 
one,  and  he  is  inclined  to  be  nasty,  may  be  bribed  to  keep  quiet 
with  a  few  dollars. 

"If  you  will  adopt  this  plan,  and  assure  me  that  copies  of  the 
book  shall  not  be  issued  until  my  sou  has  taken  his  degree, 
which  he  will  do  as  soon  as  possible,  then  the  manuscript  of  the 
Refutation  is  still  at  your  service,  and  you  shall  then  get  the 
Materia  Medica. 

"If  it  had  been  secretly  printed  in  Dresden,  without  the  veto 
of  the  Holy  Inquisition,  then  my  son  would  have  already  got 
his  degree  before  any  particular  notice  had  been  taken  of  it  in 
Leipsic. 

"But  now  that  so  much  fuss  has  been  made  about  the  thing  in 
Leipsic,  there  is  no  other  way  to  manage  it  but  that  which  I 
have  proposed.  Nor  can  a  single  word  of  the  manuscript  be 
altered. 

"  It  is  incredible  that  charges  of  heresy  and  the  spirit  of 
persecution  could  prevail,  even  in  matters  of  science,  and  exer- 
cise their  despotism,  but  it  is  so,  as  we  see  in  this  case. 

"But  shall  this  miserable  charge  of  heresy  prevent  the  most 
salutary  truths  being  said  and  printed?  Freedom  of  action,  and 
liberty  of  the  press,  must  prevail  when  grand  new  truths  shall 
be  communicated  to  the  world.  What  could  Luther  have  done 
with  his  splendid  ideas  if  he  had  not  been  able  to  get  them 
printed?  If  he  could  not  have  sent  his  outspoken,  plain  truths 
hot  from  his  heart  to  the  press  of  his  dear,  courageous  friend, 
the   bookseller  and    publisher,   Hans    Luft,  with    all    the    hard 


FIRST    COLLECTION    OF    PROVINGS.  79 

words  and  abusive  expressions  he  deemed  useful  for  his  object. 
Then  everything  was  printed  that  was  necessary,  and  it  was 
only  so,  and  in  no  other  way,  that  the  salutary  Reformation 
could  be  effected.  It  is,  of  course,  not  necessary  for  me,  like 
lyUther,  to  abuse  the  Pope,  and  call  him  an  ass  in  my  writings, 
but  I  and  my  son  must  be  able  to  say  salutary  truths  in  order 
to  bring  about  the  much-needed  reform  in  medicine.  Hans 
Luft  was  almost  as  indispensable  an  instrument  of  the  Reforma- 
tion as  Luther  himself. 

"I,  too,  require  for  the  good  cause  as  warm,  as  hearty  a 
friend  of  the  truth  for  my  publisher  as  Luft  was  for  Luther. 

"But  if  I  experience  such  great  resistance  I  cannot  advance 
another  step. 

"  It  is  just  the  same  with  the  Materia  Medica.  If  the  ene- 
mies of  truth  are  not  either  silenced  or  convinced  and  instructed 
by  this  refutation  of  Hecker,  my  Materia  Medica  cannot  make 
any  way.  The  public  can  never  be  brought  to  make  any  use  of 
it  if  the  malicious  objections  of  Hecker  and  Company  are  not 
distinctly  refuted.  If  Hecker  and  opponents  of  his  stamp 
remain  unrefuted,  I  cannot  with  honor  go  on  with  the  educa- 
tional works  I  am  projecting,  and  even  the  Organon  itself  will 
cease  to  be  respected.  No  one  would  believe  the  effect  such 
mendacious  representations  have  on  the  public. 

"  If  the  Refutation  should  not  appear,  it  will  be  thought  that 
these  calumnies  against  myself  and  my  Organon  are  unrefutable, 
and  I  would  be,  as  it  were,  banished.  No  one  would  listen  to 
what  I  said,  even  should  I  say  the  most  salutary  things.  The 
prejudiced  statements  and  miserable  accusations  of  this  more 
than  spiteful  man  must  be  utterly  smashed  up,  before  I  can  go 
on  with  my  educational  work. 

"This  is  the  state  of  things.  It  is  for  you  to  determine  whether 
you  can  interest  yourself  sufficiently  in  the  truth  and  the  good 
cause  as  to  remain  my  publisher.  See  if  you  can  realize  my 
present  wishes.* 

"  Yours  sincerely, 

"April  24,  (1811.)  "Dr.  Hahnemann." 

"I  have  just  heard  from  Leipsic  that  pressure  is  to  be  put  on 
my  son  to  withdraw  his  Refutation.     I  beg  Mr.  Voigt  to  imme- 
diately write  and  tell  Magister  Schubert  that  the  manuscript 
*Hom..  World,  Vol.  24,  p.  203. 


8o  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

business  is  already  settled,  and  that  he  should  leave  my  son 
alone." 

Burnett  says:*  "  In  all  Hahnemann's  checkered  career  noth- 
ing strikes  me  as  showing  more  profound  wisdom  than  his 
letting  his  adversaries  alone  in  their  vile  abuse  ;  he  might  have 
hurled  back  their  slanders,  and  defended  himself  and  his  dis- 
covery with  the  eloquence  of  a  Demosthenes  ;  but,  as  Celsus 
remarks,  ' Morbi  non  eloquentia  sed  remediis  curantur  ('Diseases 
are  not  cured  by  eloquence,  but  by  remedies'),  and  so  he  plodded 
on  at  his  'Materia  Medica,'  on  which  much  of  his  great  glory 
must  ever  rest." 

The  books  and  pamphlets  written  against  Homoeopathy  at 
this  time  may  be  numbered  by  hundreds,  and,  in  addition,  the 
journals  of  the  dominant  school  were  filled  with  articles.  One 
Simon  even  published  a  journal  called  the  Anti-Homoopathie 
Archiv.,  that  extended  through  several  volumes. 

And  Hahnemann,  except  in  letters  to  his  friends,  and  perhaps, 
in  the  above  mentioned  Refutation,  replied  to  this  hail  of  abuse 
by  not  one  word.  It  reminds  one  of  the  old  fable  of  the  gnat 
which  perched  on  the  back  of  the  ox  and  asked  him  if  he  hurt 
him  much  ;  and  the  good-natured  ruminant  answered  that  he 
did  not  know  he  was  there. 

But  a  fitting  answer  was  given  to  the  jealous  horde  in  the 
year,  1811,  when  Hahnemann  gave  to  the  world  the  first  volume 
of  the  "Materia  Medica  Pura."  And  during  this  period  of 
abuse  he  also  made  many  new  converts  to  his  mild  and  success- 
ful system  of  healing. 

CHAPTER  XXI. 

REMOVAL  TO  LEIPSIC — LETTERS  FROM  SISTER  CHARLOTTE — WISH 
TO    ESTABLISH    A   SCHOOL   OF    HOMCEOPATHY — DISSER- 
TATION ON  HELLEBORE — ALLOPATHIC  PRAISE, 
LECTURES  COMMENCED. 
In  the  early  part  of  the  year  1811   Hahnemann  removed  to 
the   great    medical    city  of  Leipsic,   in   order   to   engage    more 
actively   in   the  propagation   of  his   new  system   by   means  of 
didactic  lectures. 

What  a  marvelous  variety  of  changes  had  compassed  the  life 
of  this  man  since  the  time  when  he  departed  from  the  great  city 
*Ecce  Medicus,  p.  146,  (See  Recorder.) 


REMOVAIv   TO   T.EIPSIC.  8 1 

a  boy  of  twenty-two  with  the  future  all  before  him.  Vienna, 
Hermanstadt,  Erlangen,  Dessau,  Gommern,  Dresden;  the  mo- 
mentous discovery  at  lyeipsic;  Georgenthal,  the  Wander-years 
afterwards,  and  Torgau  with  its  literary  results,  until  now,  with 
a  name  well-known  in  all  Germany,  with  a  new  and  superior 
system  of  medicine  to  his  credit,  he,  a  man  of  fifty-six  years,  and 
as  he  called  himself — cosmopolite — once  more  turns  towards  the 
scene  of  his  earlier  student  life. 

Trial,  sorrow,  privation,  malevolence,  falsehood,  all  had  fol- 
lowed him  like  shadows;  yet  had  he  gone  patiently  and  manfully 
•on  in  the  path  he  had  determined  to  follow.  Now  he  returned 
to  Leipsic  to  teach  to  others  the  truths  that  God  had  permitted 
iiim  to  discover;  to  disseminate  a  certain  law  of  healing  for  the 
good  of  his  fellow-men. 

In  this  place  two  letters  from  his  sister  Charlotte  may  be  of 
interest. 

-Charlotte  was  Hahnemann's  favorite  sister.  For  her  first 
husband  she  married  the  Rev.  A.  B.  Trinius,  of  Bisleben;  after 
his  death  she  wedded  General  Superintendent  Dr.  MuUer,  of 
Eisleben.  The  younger  son  of  whom  she  speaks  in  the  second 
letter,  as  seeing  in  the  train  of  the  Duchess  Antoinette,  of  Wur- 
temberg,  whose  body  physician  he  then  was,  was  Hahnemann's 
favorite  nephew,  Trinius,  and  he  was  greatly  distinguished  as  a 
botanist,  physician  and  poet.  Some  further  account  of  him  may 
be  found  in  the  chapter  concerning  Hahnemann's  family. 

It  is  said  of  this  lady:  "  Hahnemann's  amiableness  as  a  man 
is  strikingly  exemplified  by  the  fact  that  he  was  dearly  be- 
loved, not  only  by  his  pupils  but  by  his  relatives,  and  the  ex- 
pressed opinion  of  the  latter  is  extremely  valuable  in  that  con- 
nection; his  eldest  sister,  the  wife  of  the  General  Superintendent 
Muller,  in  Eisleben,  deserves  special  mention.  She  possessed  a 
most  estimable  character,  and  was  extremely  pious,  learned  and 
henevolent,  and  her  ripe  scholarship  induced  many  young  peo- 
ple to  study  more  diligently.  Hahnemann  and  his  wife  were 
her  darlings.  The  following  letters  written  at  a  very  important 
period  of  her  life  permit  a  glimpse  into  the  depths  of  her  mind 
and  heart:  "  * 

''My  Dear  Brother:  How  much;  O,  how  much,  I  should  like 
to  press  thee  and  thine  once  more  to  my  heart  in  this  life!     I 

*  "Biographisches  Denkmal,"  p.  loo. 


82  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

would  have  traveled  round  the  world  to  have  done  it;  but,  un- 
fortunately, all  thy  news  makes  all,  yes  all,  impossible.  So  then 
thou  hast  been  right  well,  thou  who  hast  been  so  mindful  of  me. 

' '  Not  a  day  passes  that  I  do  not  offer  a  prayer  for  thee  ta 
God,  who  loves  us  all  so  much  that  in  order  to  procure  ever- 
lasting happiness  for  us,  and  to  confirm  his  own  attributes,  He 
assumed  the  person  of  Jesus  Christ  for  us  all.  Come  all  ye 
dear  ones  whom  I  would  press  to  my  heart  at  this  solemn 
moment,  and  would  greet  with  the  greeting  of  love,  come. 
We  should  permit  no  day  to  pass  in  which  we  do  not  pray  for 
help  from  the  Holy  Spirit  to  enable  us  to  be  duly  and  truly 
thankful  to  the  Father  and  His  Eternal  Son  that  He  cares  for 
us.  How  happy  and  well  have  I  felt  in  the  midst  of  tny  pains 
and  griefs  during  the  last  thirty- four  years;  for  thus  long  has  it 
been  that  Jesus  Christ  has  been  my  wisdom,  righteousness, 
salvation  and  redemption. 

"  When  you  receive  these  lines  I  shall  be  on  my  way  to 
where  God  called  me,  and  where  he  caused  manna  to  grow  for 
me,  a  poor  woman  destitute  of  all  property,  and  where  I  shall 
still  use  the  faculties  with  which  he  has  endowed  me. 

"  My  sons  have  just  learned  through  me  that  I  am  going  to 
Curland. 

"  Count  von  lyieven  has  written  me  an  extremely  kind  letter,, 
and  has  provided  me  with  a  pass  and  travelling  expenses. 

"When  I  shall  have  been  in  Senten  for  a  little  while  I  will' 
send  you  a  true  account  of  my  condition. 

"  May  Leipzic  be  the  scene  of  all  the  earthly  happiness  that 
it  is  possible  for  thee  to  enjoy  in  this  world. 

"Alas,  my  dear  brother,  I  cannot  tell  thee  all  that  my  soul 
would  express. 

"  Thy  loving  sister, 

"  Ch.  G.  Muller. 

''Edersleben  near  Eislebe7i^  /iinc  i8,  1811.'" 


"Senten,  October  17,  18 ri. 

'■'My  Dear  Brother:  I  declare  to  thee  that  there  passes  scarcely 

a  day  that  I  do  not  think  of  thee,  thy  wife  and  children,  and 

think  of  thee  so  justly  with  love,  too.     What  it  has  cost  not  to 

see  once  more  you  all  whom  I  would  press  to  my  heart  from  the 


I 


REMOVAL   TO    LKIPSIC.  83 

eldest  to  the  youngest  that  knows  how  to  love,  can  be  better 
felt  than  described.  I  had  a  pleasant  journey,  which  was  with- 
out any  important  happenings  ;  in  fact,  I  was  not  seasick  once 
during  the  twenty-four  hours  that  we  were  crossing  the  Gulf  of 
Curland. 

"Three  delightful  stops,  in  Halle,  Berlin,  and  Konigsberg, 
respectively — in  all  of  which  places  there  reside  dear  acquaint- 
ances of  mine — added  pleasure  to  the  journey.  How  kindly  and 
kinsmanlike  I  was  received  !  I  met  Count  and  Countess  von 
lyieven  at  the  house  of  Herr  von  Sacken,  the  Countess's  father. 
I  rested  there  eight  days,  and  then  went  on  with  the  Count's 
family  to  Senten.  If  thou  wouldst  understand  my  position, 
it  is  that  of  a  loving  mother. 

"  I  have  now  been  here  three  months,  and  can  bear  testimony 
of  two  kinds:  one  kind  is  that  what  I  teach  the  Countess  is 
more  like  a  pleasure  than  a  burden  ;  and  the  other,  that  no  time 
is  ever  tedious  here,  for  there  are  too  many  changes.  I  had 
formed  a  different  opinion  of  Curland. 

"Almost  everything  here  betokens  prosperity,  and  I  had  sup- 
posed that  the  inhabitants  were  poor  and  wretched. 

"The  weddings  of  the  serfs,  or  bondmen,  here  cost  one,  two, 
and  three  hundred  thalers ;  and  whoever  is  not  in  good  circum- 
stances has  himself  to  blame  for  it.  Plenty  prevails  almost 
everywhere,  and  especially  at  the  farmhouses.  Breakfast  at  our 
house  here  consists  of  white  and  black  bread,  butter,  cheese, 
pickled  salmon  and  herring,  a  kind  of  sea  fish  called  lamprey, 
sugared  rum,  liquor  and  orangeade.  At  the  close  of  meals, 
however,  there  is  no  intoxication.  Permit  me  to  say  that  I  am 
frugal,  and  in  good  health. 

"  I  saw  my  eldest  son  for  a  few  hours  in  the  forenoon  before  I 
reached  Frauenburg.  He  almost  got  on  his  knees  and  begged 
me  to  go  live  with  him,  and  wished  to  share  with  me  all  that  he 
had ;  but  so  long  as  I  have  my  strength  I  will  not  eat  the  bread 
of  my  children.  If  I  do  not  utterly  mistake  I  maj-  be  buried 
here  at  the  I^ieven  homestead. 

"I  saw  my  youngest  son  in  the  cortege  of  the  Duchess  of 
Wurtemberg,  on  its  way  from  the  sea  baths  to  Witepsk,  in 
Russia. 

' '  It  seems  as  if  God  had  allotted  me  a  resting  place  for  the 
remainder  of  my  life  here  in  this  dear  family,  where  I  might 


84  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

enjoy  the  most  inspiring  of  all  realities.  Jesus  Christ  has  made 
us  unto  wisdom,  righteousness,  salvation  and  redemption.  My 
heart  lives  therein,  and  I  am  happy  and  of  good  cheer. 

"Thy  Sister, 

"MULLER. 
"  She  loves  thee  with  her  whole  soul." 

From  the  time  of  Hahnemann's  settlement  in  lyeipsic  may  be 
reckoned  a  new  and  important  epoch  in  his  life.  Heretofore  he 
had  been  driven  from  place  to  place,  by  the  jealousy  and  bigotry 
of  the  physicians,  and  their  allies,  the  apothecaries.  He  had 
endeavored  by  every  possible  means  that  an  honest  man  could 
devise  to  persuade  the  doctors  to  try  the  new  and  simple  system. 
He  had,  in  his  writings,  placed  the  matter  in  a  temperate  way 
before  the  reading  portion  of  the  profession.  He  had  carefully 
explained  the  path  by  which  he  reached  certainty  from  the 
doubts  of  the  old  and  imperfect  methods  of  practice. 

It  had  been  all  in  vain,  and  now  he  gave  up  all  thoughts  of 
argument  and  of  kindliness;  persecution  had  made  him  bitter. 
From  this  time  he  became  a  most  uncompromising  foe  to  those 
who  would  not  listen  believingly  to  his  doctrines. 

He  gave  up  the  idea  of  modifying  in  the  least  degree  the  pre- 
determined opinions  of  the  older  physicians.  He  turned  to  the 
students  and  the  younger  doctors  who,  as  yet,  were  not  so  firmly 
fixed  in  prejudice,  and  who  were  willing  to  submit,  with  some 
degree  of  fairness,  these  new  and  startling  theories  of  medicine  to 
a  reasonable  test. 

He  soon  collected  from  the  students,  congregated  at  Leipsic,  a 
select  coterie,  to  whom  he  commenced  to  teach  his  doctrines. 

His  first  desire  had  been  to  establish  a  college  with  a  Homceo- 
pathic  hospital  attached,  but  this  he  could  not  do,  and  therefore 
he  resolved  to  deliver  lectures  upon  the  principles  of  his  beloved 
Homoeopathy. 

Albrecht  says:  *  "Hahnemann  resolved  to  move  to  Leipsic  to 
devote  himself  to  instructing  the  pupils  of  the  Medical  Depart- 
ment of  the  University.  When  he  asked  for  the  privilege  of 
delivering  lectures,  RosenmuUer,  who  was  then  the  Dean  of  the 
Medical  Faculty,  told  him  that  a  doctor  extraneiis,  although 
he  is  legally  entitled  to  practice  medicine,  has  not  for  that  reason 
the  privilege  of  delivering  lectures,  but  that  he  must  first  gain 
*Albrecht's  "  Leben  und  Wirken,"  p.  30. 


REMOVAL  TO   LEIPSIC.  85 

such  a  privilege  by  the  vindication  of  a  dissertation  with  a  re- 
spondent from  the  Medical  Schools,  and  that  he  must  pay  to  the 
Faculty  a  fee  of  fifty  thalers.  Then  he  becomes  a  member  of  the 
Faculty  and  may  announce  his  lectures  both  in  the  catalogue  of 
Lectors  and  by  public  posters." 

In  accordance  with  this  regulation  Hahnemann  was  now 
compelled  to  pay  the  usual  fee,  and  to  defend  a  thesis  before  the 
Faculty  of  Medicine. 

In  defending  a  thesis  according  to  the  law  of  the  Universities 
of  that  day,  the  candidate  was  obliged  to  present  it  before  a 
mixed  body  of  scientists,  and  be  prepared  to  defend  it  from 
criticisms  and  attacks  that  any  one  of  his  medical  listeners 
might  make  against  its  truth. 

On  the  26th  of  June,  1812,  Hahnemann  presented  a  Latin 
thesis,  entitled  "A  Medical  Historical  Dissertation  on  the 
Hellebori?m  of  the  Ancients."* 

His  son  Frederick  acted  as  the  respondent.  The  thesis  was  a 
marvel  of  research  and  erudition,  concerning  the  white  helle- 
bore of  the  ancients,  which  he  proved  to  be  identical  with  the 
Veratrum  album  of  the  present. 

He  referred  to  many  of  the  earlier  writers,  and  in  such  a  way 
as  shows  distinctly  that  he  must  have  carefully  studied  their 
writings. 

In  order  to  have  written  this  he  must  have  read  in  their  ori- 
ginal language,  the  works  of  Avicenna  from  the  Arabic,  Galen, 
Pliny,  Oribasius,  Herodotus,  Hippocrates,  Ctesias  the  Coan, 
Theophrastus  theKresian,  Haller,  Scaliger,  Dioscorides,  Murray, 
Pallas,  Vicat,  Lucretius,  Celsus,  Jacquinus,  Salmatius,  Antyllus, 
Grassius,  Muralto,  Gesner,  Bergius,  Greding,  Unter,  Lorry, 
Reimann,  Scholzius,  Benevenius,  Rodder,  Lentilius,  Strabo, 
Stephanus  the  Byzantine,  Rufus,  ^tius  the  Amideman, 
Rasarius,  Archigenes,  Aretseus  of  Cappadocia,  Plistonicus, 
Diodes,  Themison,  Cgelius  Aurelianus,  Alexander  of  Tralles, 
Paulus  of  ^gina,  Johannes,  Massarius,  Petri  Belloni,  Pzusanius, 
Mnesitheus,  Rufus  the  Ephesian,  and  many  more. 

The  above  medical  writers  are  referred  to  in  no  superficial 
manner.  Hahnemann  must  have  read  carefully  each  one  of 
their  writings,  in  order  to  quote  them  in  the  manner  he  does. 
In  the  Latin  pamphlet   published   at  the  time,  there  are   foot 

*Publislied  in  Hahnemann'.  "  Cesser  Writings,"  New  York,  1852,  page 
569. 


86  •  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

notes  on  every  page,  and  these  references  are  very  circum- 
stantial, both  in  regard  to  the  subject,  and  also  concerning  the 
writer.* 

He  often  corrects  mistakes  in  the  old  writings,  stating  care- 
fully wherein  each  one  is  wrong.  Thus  on  page  603  he  says: 
"Pliny  is,  however,  wrong  in  here  stating  Phocian  Anticyra  to 
be  an  island  for  it  was  situated  on  the  continent,  half  a  mile 
from  the  port.  Pausanias  has  described  its  position."  On  page 
613  he  speaks  of  restoring  a  word  in  Sarrazin's  text  of  Dio- 
scorides,  and  says  that  he  is  fully  borne  out  by  Avicenna's 
Arabic  version.  On  page  615  he  says:  "  ^tius  is  wrong  in 
saying  that  Johannes  Actuarius  was  the  first  to  allege  that 
Hellebore  acts  without  difiiculty." 

Of  Mesne  he  enters  into  particulars  on  page  594:  "He 
flourished  in  the  reign  of  caliph  Al  Rashid,  about  the  year  800, 
a  man  of  such  celebrity  that  he  was  termed  the  evangelist  of 
physicians." 

From  all  these  writers  he  culls,  and  refers  to  the  book  and 
passage  in  the  writings  of  each  in  which  any  mention  is  made 
of  the  Hellebore. 

In  order  to  do  this  their  pages  must  have  been  all  turned 
over,  and  he  must  have  read  in  Hebrew,  Greek,  Latin,  Arabic, 
Italian,  French,  English  and  German. 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  no  one  attacked  this  wonder  of 
philological  research.  All  his  hearers  were  amazed.  The  Dean 
of  the  Faculty  publicly  tendered  his  congratulations. 

And  yet,  a  few  years  later  this  master  of  medical  learning  was 
hounded  out  of  Leipsic  by  physicians  who  said  he  was  not 
capable  of  preparing  his  own  medicines;  they  even  burnt  those 
medicines,  so  great  was  their  prejudice  against  the  man! 

Albrecht  tells  the  following  anecdote  to  illustrate  the  effect 
that  Hahnemann's  scholarship  had  upon  the  physicians  at  the 
time:  f 

"A  Dr.  Huck,  of  Lutzen,  a  small  city  near  Leipzic,  writes 
thus  to  a  friend  in  Penig:  Dear  Friend — Though  I  seldom  talk 
to  any  one  about  one  of  the  greatest  thinkers  of  all  the  centuries, 
yet  I  gladly  write  to  you  about  the  man  who,  by  evident  proofs 
of  his  great  ability,  has  in  a  short  time  wholly  won  over  to  him- 

*"Dissertatio  Historico — Medica  de  Helleborismo  veterum,"  Lipsiae,  1812. 
t"Leben  und  Wirken,"  p.  30.     "Biographisches  Denkmal,"  p.  31. 


REMOVAL  TO   LEIPSIC.  87 

•self  the  unprejudiced  portion  of  the  medical  as  well  as  the  non- 
medical learned  men  of  Leipzic.  To  hear  Hahnemann^  the 
keenest  and  boldest  investigator  of  nature,  deliver  a  master- 
piece of  his  intellect  and  industry,  was  to  me  a  truly  beatific 
enjoyment.  I  returned  home  as  if  in  a  dream,  and  a  wilderness 
seemed  to  surround  me,  as  I  was  obliged  to  acknowledge  to  my- 
self, '  You  are  not  worthy  to  loose  the  latchets  of  his  shoes.' 

"  He  will  deliver  a  private  lecture  at  Michaelmas.  I  shall  be 
a  student  next  year  again,  and  if  unforeseen  circumstances  do 
not  prevent,  will  see  what  I  can  derive  from  this  inconceivable 
source.  If  Hahnemann  would  stoop  to  act  contrary  to  his  noble 
■character  and  play  the  hypocrite,  like  so  many  other  (seemingly) 
great  men,  even  the  most  renowned  citizens  of  Leipzic  would  be 
obliged  to  lower  their  pretensions  Most  of  his  opponents  were 
•so  candid  and  courteous  as  to  acknowledge  that  they  were 
wholly  of  his  opinion,  medically  speaking,  and  they  thought 
that  any  one  in  order  to  say  anything  would  be  obliged  to  dis- 
cuss the  matter  philologically.  He  covered  himself  with  renown 
and  remained  victor. 

"  Had  it  not  been  a  very  unsuitable  time  to  look  for  him  on 
that  day,  I  would  have  gone  to  him,  and  would  have  voluntarily 
and  unconditionally  betaken  myself  to  his  banner." 

This  letter  is  dated  Lutzen,  August  9,  1812.  Albrecht  adds 
in  a  note:  "The  physician,  of  whose  letter  this  is  an  extract,  as 
a  token  of  his  high  regard  for  Hahnemann,  christened  his  son 
Luther  Reinhard  Hahnemann." 

Hartmann  says  of  this  period  of  his  life:*  "With  the  year 
181 1,  when  Hahnemann  chose  Leipsic  as  his  place  of  residence, 
begins  a  new  and  very  highly  important  era  in  his  life.  He 
doubtless  moved  to  Leipsic  to  deliver  lectures  and  thus  to  make 
accessible  to  the  young  medical  students  his  new  system  of  medi- 
cine, as  he  well  realized  that  it  would  always  remain  a  terra  in- 
cognita to  the  physicians  of  the  old  school.  For  this  purpose  he 
became  one  of  the  Faculty  through  his  disputation,  and  also  wrote 
his  '  Historico-Medical  Dissertation  on  the  Helleborism  of  the 
Ancients,'  and  publically  vindicated  the  same  on  June  26,  18 12, 
having  selected  as  his  respondent  his  son,  Frederick  Hahnemann, 
then  a  Baccalaureate  of  Medicine.  There  was  at  that  time  but 
one  opinion  concerning  his  intellectual  and  scholarly  treatise, 
*Allg.  Horn.  Zeit.,  Vol.  26,  p.  180. 


»»  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

and  Ludwig,  then  Dean  of  the  Medical  Faculty,  publicly   eulo- 
gized him  for  it." 

In  December,  1811,  he  had  the  following  announcement  in- 
serted in  the  Reichanzeiger: 

"mfdicaIv  institute." 

"I  feel  that  my  doctrine  enunciated  in  the  '  Organon  of 
Rational  Healing'  aroused  the  highest  expectations  for  the  wel- 
fare of  the  sick,  but  by  its  very  nature  it  is  so  new  and  striking, 
and  not  only  opposes  almost  all  medical  dogmas  and  traditional 
observations,  but  also  deviates  from  them  as  widely  as  heaven 
from  earth,  that  it  cannot  so  readily  gain  entrance  among  the 
otherwise  educated  physicians  of  my  time,  unless  practical 
demonstration  comes  to  its  assistance. 

"  In  order  to  effect  this  object  among  my  contemporaries,  and 
thus  show  them  by  the  evidence  of  sight  that  the  truth  of  this, 
doctrine  stands  firmly  upon  an  irrefutable  basis  in  its  whole  ex- 
tent, and  that  the  Homoeopathic  method  of  healing,  new  as  it  is, 
is  the  only  acceptable,  the  most  consistent,  the  simplest,  the 
surest  and  the  most  beneficent  of  all  earthly  ways  of  healing 
human  disease,  I  have  decided  to  open  here  in  Leipzic,  at  the 
beginning  of  April,  an  Institute  for  Graduate  Physicians. 

' '  In  this  Institute  I  shall  elucidate  in  every  respect  the  entire 
Homoeopathic  system  of  healing  as  taught  in  the  '  Organon,'  and 
shall  make  a  practical  application  of  it  with  patients  treated  in 
their  presence,  and  thus  place  my  pupils  in  a  condition  to  be  able 
to  practice  this  system  in  all  cases  themselves. 

"  A  six  months'  course  will  be  sufficient  to  enable  any  intelli- 
gent mind  to  grasp  the  principles  of  the  Homoeopathic  law  of 
cure." 

Hahnemann  thus  announced  his  first  course  of  lectures  on  the 
theory  and  principles  of  Homoeopathy,  and  said  that  in  them  he 
would  explain  the  principles  of  the  "Organon."  They  were 
commenced  in  April,  18 12. 

He  gave  two  lectures  weekly,  on  Wednesday  and  Saturday 
afternoons,  from  2  to  3  o'clock.  These  lectures  were  continued 
semi-annually  during  his  entire  stay  at  I^eipsic,  from  181 2  to 
1821. 

As  an  example  of  Hahnemann's  method  of  selecting  the 
remedy  the  following  letter  addressed  to  Stapf,  in  18 13,  may  be 
interesting.      It    was   first    published    by    Dr.    Hering,   in     the 


REMOVAI.  TO   IvEIPSIC.  89 

Homceopathic  News  of  Philadelphia,  1855,  and  then  was  copied 
into  the  Zeitung  for  June  25,  1855.* 

Stapf  consulted  Hahnemann  about  his  own  child.  At  this 
time  the  first  part  only  of  the  Materia  Medica  had  been  pffib- 
lished.  Stapf  does  not  seem  to  have  reported  the  symptoms 
very  carefully,  and  he  had  mentioned  as  possible  remedies,  Nux 
vomica,  Chamomilla,  Pulsatilla  and  China.  In  the  original  letter 
Hahnemann,  in  mentioning  the  symptoms,  calls  them  also  by 
numbers. 

"  Notwithstanding  that  Nux  vomica  795  produced  perspiration 
standing  on  the  forehead;  826,  perspiration  when  moving;  830, 
in  general,  perspiration  during  sleep;  Chamomilla,  826,  perspira- 
tion especially  about  the  head  during  sleep;  Pulsatilla,  per- 
spiration during  sleep,  disappearing  when  awaking;  China,  per- 
spiration when  moving  (crying),  perspiration  in  the  head  especi- 
ally (but  also  in  the  hair) ;  there  is  more  indication  for  Pulsatilla 
by  the  itching  of  the  eyes,  which  Pulsatilla  has,  especially  with 
redness  in  the  external  corner  of  the  eye  after  rubbing,  and 
with  agglutination  of  them  in  the  morning;  if  not,  Ig7iatia 
would  be  preferable,  which  also  cures  itching  and  redness,  but 
in  the  internal  corners  with  agglutination  in  the  morning,  in 
•case  the  child's  disposition  is  very  changeable,  now  too  lively, 
and  then  peevishly  crying,  which  Ig7iatia  produces;  and  if  there 
should  be,  at  the  same  time,  a  great  sensitiveness  to  the  day- 
light when  opening  the  eyes  in  the  morning,  which  also  is 
caused  by  Ignatia;  or,  in  case  of  a  mild  disposition  and  a  weep- 
ing mood  in  the  evening,  and  a  general  aggravation  of  symptoms 
in  the  evening,  Piilsatilla. 

"The  frequent  awakening  during  the  night  indicates  Ignatia 
more  than  Pulsatilla,  the  latter  has  more  a  late  falling  asleep. 
The  itching  of  the  nose  has  been  observed  mostly  from  Nux 
vomica.  Ignatia  and  Chamotnilla  have  both,  the  latter  more — 
pain  during  micturition.  Pulsatilla  the  most  pain  before  urinat- 
ing. The  loud  breathing  has  been  observed  of  China  and  Nux 
— from  the  latter  especially  during  sleep. 

"As  these  remedies  correspond  much  with  each  other  {China 
excepted),  and  one  corrects  the  faults  and  bad  effects  of  the 
other  (if  only  Ignatia  does  not   follow  Nux,  or  Nux  is  not  given 

'''Allg.  Ham.  Zeitung.  Voh  50,  page  64.  Horn.  News,  Phila.,  1855, 
page  5. 


90  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

immediately  after  Ignatia  as  they  are  not  well  suited  to  follow* 
one  another,  on  account  of  their  too  great  medical  similarity), 
you  yourself  can  judge  now,  as  to  the  succession  in  which  you. 
may  choose  to  employ  Ignatia^  Pulsatilla,  Nitx  vomica,  Chaino- 
niilla,  if  the  first,  or  one  of  the  others,  should  not  alone  prove 
sufficient.  To  give  Chainomilla  there  ought  to  be  more  thirst 
at  night  than  at  present,  and  more  irritability.  China  has  little 
or  nothing  for  itself,  and  is  therefore  not  to  be  chosen." 

Hahnemann's  lectures  were  attended  both  by  students  and. 
physicians,  old  and  young,  nor  were  these  confined  to  the  mem- 
bers of  the  medical  profession;  others,  as  in  the  case  of  Baron 
von  Brunnow,  who  was  a  student  of  law,  listened  to  the  new 
propaganda  of  this  enthusiastic  old  man.  The  fame  of  his  mar- 
velous learning,  the  desire  to  understand  something  of  the  new 
truth  of  medicine,  and  the  wish,  no  doubt,  to  hear  the  man  who- 
was  making  such  wonderful  cures,  all  were  factors  in  attracting 
many  to  his  lectures. 

We  are  indebted  to  Dr.  Franz  Hartmann,  one  of  his  pupils  at 
that  time,  for  very  much  that  we  know  concerning  his  life  and 
teaching  in  Leipsic.  He  says  that  had  Hahnemann  not  been  so- 
bitter  in  his  abuse  of  the  old  school  of  medicine  and  its  adher- 
ents, he  would  have  attracted  more  real  followers. 

One  can  readily  understand  the  reasons  for  this  bitterness  on 
the  part  of  this  old  man,  for  he  was  then  nearly  sixty  years  of 
age ;  he  had  been  driven  from  place  to  place,  his  statements- 
laughed  at,  his  knowledge  scorned,  his  efforts  at  conciliation  met 
with  calumny  and  lies. 

He  had  long  before  this  time  ceased  to  use  his  former  methods 
of  temperate  argument.  He  now  exercised  little  patience  for 
the  men  who  condemned  his  doctrines  without  investigation. 

During  this  time  he  was  working  upon  the  "  Reine  Arzneimit- 
tellehre,"  or  "Materia  Medica  Pura."  The  first  volume  wa& 
published  in  Dresden  by  Arnold  in  1811;  the  second  and  third 
volumes  in  1 816-17;  the  fourth  in  1818;  the  fifth  in  18 19;  and 
the  sixth  in  1821.  A  second  edition  was  published  by  Arnold 
(1822  to  1827). 

The  "  Materia  Medica  Pura  "  consists  of  a  record  of  the  symp- 
toms obtained  from  different  medical  substances  proven  upon  the 
healthy  body  by  Hahnemann  and  his  disciples.  In  the  preface 
to  volume  I.  he  says: 


REMOVAL    TO    LEIPSIC.  gi 

"I  forbear  writing  a  criticism  of  the  existing  S}'Stems  and 
modes  of  preparation  of  remedial  agents.  Physicians  imagine 
that  they  can  judge  of  the  remedial  virtues  of  medicinal  agents 
by  their  color,  taste  and  smell;  they  suppose  they  can  extract 
these  virtues  by  distillation  or  sublimation  in  the  shape  of 
phlegma,  ethereal  oils,  pungent  acids  and  oils,  volatile  salts,  or 
from  the  caput  mortuum,  they  imagine  they  can  extract  alkalies 
and  earths  almost  by  the  same  processes,  or  agreeabl}^  to  the 
modern  method,  they  dissolve  the  soluble  parts  of  those  sub- 
stances in  different  liquids,  inspissate  the  extracts,  or  add  many 
kinds  of  reagents  for  the  purpose  of  extracting  resin,  gum, 
gluten,  starch,  wax  and  albumen,  salts  and  earths,  acids  and 
alkaloids,  or  converting  the  substances  into  gases. 

"In  spite  of  all  these  violent  transformations  the  medicinal 
substances  never  showed  the  remedial  virtues  which  each  of 
them  possesses,  the  material  extracts  did  not  embody  the  cura- 
tive power  of  the  respective  medicinal  substances.  That  power 
cannot  be  presented  in  a  tangible  form  but  can  only  be  recog- 
nized by  its  effects  in- the  living  organism. 

"The  day  of  the  true  knowledge  of  remedies  and  a  true  sys- 
tem of  therapeutics  will  dawn  when  physicians  shall  abandon 
the  ridiculous  method  of  mixing  together  large  portions  of  medic- 
inal substances  whose  remedial  virtues  are  only  known  specu- 
latively or  by  vague  praises,  which  is  in  fact  not  to  knoiv  them  at 

aiir 

In  the  prefaces  to  the  several  volumes  he  mentions  the  fallacies 
of  polypharmacy,  the  advantage  of  prescribing  according  to  a 
simple  and  fixed  law.  He  makes  careful  explanations  of  the 
experiments  whose  results  are  recorded,  gives  the  order  in  which 
the  symptoms  of  the  drags  are  classified  and  arranged,  with 
explanations  of  certain  obscure  symptoms. 

As  a  preface  to  volume  IV.  he  publishes  the  essay  :  "  How  is 
it  Possible  That  Small  Homoeopathic  Doses  Should  Have  Such 
great  Power?" 

In  this  he  advances  his  theory  that  minute  subdivision  of  a 
substance  increases  its  power  of  medicinal  action. 

Under  each  remedy  is  first  an  introduction,  giving  its  method 
of  preparation  and  best  limit  of  attenuation,  with  general 
remarks  on  its  action  on  the  system  ;  then  follow  the  symptoms, 
classified  according  to  the  parts  of  the  body. 


92  LIFE   OF   HAHNEMANN. 

In  the  German  editions  these  symptoms  are  numbered.  It 
was  originally  issued  in  six  volumes,  and  contained  the  provings 
of  fifty-four  remedies. 

In  1813  he  published  in  the  AUgemeirie  Aiizeiger,  for  March, 
an  article  on  "The  Spirit  of  the  Homoeopathic  Healing  I^aw." 
This  was  a  resume  of  the  truths  regarding  the  effects  of  reme- 
dies prescribed  in  accordance  with  the  Homoeopathic  law.  It 
has  been  many  times  republished.  It  is  to  be  particularly 
noticed,  as  it  was  the  first  essay  on  the  subject  of  Homoeopathy 
printed  in  the  United  States.  It  was  translated  into  imperfect 
English  by  Dr.  Hans  Birch  Gram,  and  published  in  New  York 
city  in  1825. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

CORRESPONDENCE    WITH    ROBBI — PROVING    REMEDIES — HAHNE- 
MANN TO  STAFF,   ON  PROVING — HARTMANN'S  ST0RY_; 
OF  HAHNEMANN'S  LIFE   AT  LEIPSIC — 
HAHNEMANN'S    STUDENTS. 

Soon  after  Hahnemann  commenced  to  lecture  at  Leipsic,  one 
Dr.  Robbi,  a  young  Allopathic  physician,  succeeded  in  ingra- 
tiating himself  in  his  favor  by  feigned  respect  and  admiration  for 
his  genius.  He  afterwards  became  one  of  the  foremost  in  ridi- 
culing his  system.  Robbi's  letter  and  Hahnemann's  answer  are 
both  given  in  full,  as  illustrating  the  kindliness  of  Hahnemann 
towards  the  man  whom  even  then  he  must  have  mistrusted. 
Dr.  Robbi  writes  as  follows:* 

''Noble  and  Honored  Sir:  A  year  ago  I  heard  you  deliver 
your  lectures  on  the  'Organon  of  Healing'  with  much  pleasure, 
and  how  the  scales  fell  from  my  eyes;  much  was  clear  to  me,  but 
there  was  much  that  was  not  clear,  and  therefore  I  had  almost 
decided,  along  with  my  late  friend,  Mr.  Hannemann,  to  investi- 
gate more  thoroughly  a  system  by  which  we  might  be  able  to 
attain    to    something   more    positive    in   medicine.     My  friend, 

H and  I  had  incurred  much  enmity  among  our  colleagues 

through  our  vindication  of  your  method  of  healing,  and  especially 
that  of  Dr.  N . 

"My  friend,  Hannemann,  died,  and  his  death  took  me  back  to 
*"Biographisches  Deukmal,"  p.  128. 


CORRESPONDENCE    WITH   ROBBI.  93 

practice  in  the  hospital,  and  finally  the  derangement  of  my  nerv- 
ous system  by  a  so-called  t3'phus  nosocomialis  took  me  far  from 
my  beautiful  goal.  But,  nevertheless,  I  studied  your  'Organon.' 
I  have  now  taken  a  degree,  and  have  no  longer  to  spend  so 
much  on  the  symbolical  books  of  the  Ars  conjechiralis. 

"I  have  taken  the  liberty  to  write  to  Prince  Repnin,  through 
his  family  physician,  Dr.  Bizzatti,  who  is  my  friend,  about  the 
public  benefit  that  would  be  derived  from  introducing  your 
method  of  healing,  and  I  hope  to  receive  more  definite  informa- 
tion about  the  matter  in  a  few  days. 

"I  should  like  very  much  to  talk  with  you  personally  on  some 
topics  concerning  your  system.  I  have  already  gone  twice  to 
the  lectures  in  your  department  and  was  not  admitted,  so  that  I 
suppose  that  my  visit  is  not  agreeable  to  you,  and  I  must  have 
recourse  to  writing. 

"And,  besides  this,  unfortunately,  I  have  seen  from  one  of 
your  letters  to  Dr.  Dienemann  that  you  wholly  misjudge  me  and 
already  consider  me  to  be  sunk  in  the  mire  of  the  old  school.  I 
shall  not  cast  aside  my  method  of  healing  until  I  find  a  better 
one;  and  I  shall  by  no  means  depend  either  on  the  prejudices  of 
custom — that  childish  belief — and  justify  or  defend  what  is  non- 
sensical; only  I  must  first  have  clearness,  for  then  only  am  I 
successful. 

"I  have  thought  of  translating  your  'Organon'  into  English 
or  Italian;  but  as  I  cannot  previously  have  a  personal  talk  with 
you  about  the  matter,  I  think  that  it  will  scarcely  be  able  to  be 
done.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the  publication  of  such  a  system  of 
medicine  would  produce  no  insignificant  revolution  among  the 
learned  in  Kngland  and  Italy,  since  the  unimportant  system  of 
the  theory  of  contra-stimulation,  which  is  nothing  but  a  modifi- 
cation of  Brown's  theory  of  stimulation,  has  already  taken  root 
in  the  whole  of  Italy.  I  can  send  you  an  Italian  treatise  on  this 
system,  if  it  would  be  of  interest  to  you,  to  make  yourself 
acquainted  with  it. 

"With  profound  esteem,  I  have  the  honor  to  be 
' '  Your  obedient  servant, 

"  Dr.  Heinrich  Robbi. 

"P.  S. — Of  your  works,  I  have  only  the  'Organon'  and  the 
defence  of  your  system  against  Hecker's  silly  attack.  I  must 
procure  for  myself  all  the  other  books  that  you  have  written. 


94  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

and  I  therefore  entreat  you  to  furnish  me  with  a  complete  list  of 
the  same." 

To  this  letter  Hahnemann  made  the  following  dignified  and 
kindly  answer: 

''Dear  Dr.  Rohbi :  Having  taken  your  degree,  you  are  now 
at  liberty  to  think  and  act  as  you  please — a  desideratum  of  the 
greatest  importance  to  every  artisan.  You  are  now  free  to  go 
on  in  the  old  way,  or  to  adopt  the  new  one  now  pointed  out. 

"  I  am  gratified  to  find  that,  though  owing  to  my  professional 
engagements,  I  was  unable  to  converse  with  you  at  my  resi- 
dence, I  am  now  able  to  communicate  m)^  meaning  to  you  in 
another  and  more  permanent  manner,  by  writing.  The  tendency 
of  my  opinion  is  to  warn  you  against  the  adoption  of  Homoeo- 
pathy.    Listen  to  me! 

"  When  we  pursue  a  practical  career  in  life  we  usually  have  a 
threefold  purpose:  ist.  To  make  ourselves  generally  beloved 
by  our  mode  of  thinking  and  acting,  to  make  no  blunders,  and 
to  be  corrupted  by  nobody.  2d.  To  arrange  our  business  so  as 
to  transact  it  the  most  readily.  3d.  To  earn  as  much  as  possible 
by  this  business. 

' '  You  can  reach  no  one  of  these  three  purposes  so  well 
through  Homoeopathy  as  through  the  way  usually  cho.sen.  For 
you  think,  since  one  is  tolerated  among  his  colleagues  if  he 
wishes  to  do  nothing  that  is  new,  and  immediately  pursues  the 
same  path  as  they  do,  that  it  commands  respect  not  to  raise 
yourself  above  them  by  introducing  improvements,  and  not  to 
cast  suspicion  upon  the  belief  of  your  ancestors  by  any  innova- 
tions. 

"Then  one  is  your  'dear  colleague,'  and  it  comes  into  the 
mind  of  no  one  of  these  colleagues  to  undermine  your  good  name 
by  defamation. 

"  If  one  is  addicted  to  their  way,  to  their  belief — hallowed  by 
time-honored  opinions — in  other  words,  does  as  they  do,  who 
should  then  calumniate,  harm,  and  persecute  you?  How  can  it 
come  into  the  mind  of  anyone  who  has  a  conscientious  heart  to 
do  wrong  to  a  brother  of  the  same  persuasion  ?  By  following 
this  course  you  clearly  see  you  secure  good  will  of  your  col- 
leagues, and  you  perceive  that  no  one  will  then  rob  you  of  the 
esteem  and  confidence  which  you  command  among  your  patients. 
You  remain  without  scruple  a  friend  to  their  surrounding  and 


CORRESPONDENCE   WITH    ROBBI.  95 

in  the  most  friendly  understanding  with  them.  Is  this  of  no 
significance  ? 

"On  the  other  hand,  I  need  not  remind  you  of  what  the 
Homoeopathist  has  to  endure.  Just  recall  what  you  have  heard 
with  your  own  ears,  or  have  read  here  and  there.  Would  you 
•court  such  martyrdom  ?     I  do  not  advise  you  to  do  so. 

"The  second  purpose,  the  readier  transaction  of  business,  you 
■cannot  reach  as  certainly  as  by  the  usual  way.  There  are 
■enough  prescriptions  of  a  prescribed  form  for  all  specified  dis- 
■eases,  and  if  some  disease  has  no  name  it  is  given  a  prescribed 
name,  and  there  is  applied  to  it  the  medical  formula  given  to  it 
iDy  the  learned  man  who  wrote  on  that  particular  disease. 
^Everything  is  at  hand,  and  we  have  only  to  imitate,  and  if  any- 
one censures  or  condemns  the  treatment  he  is  referred  to  the 
book.  Then  he  must  hold  his  tongue !  How  easy  it  is  to 
incorporate  in  one's  memory  a  certain  number  of  formulas  which 
one  need  only  to  recall  to  mind  at  the  bedside  of  the  patient  in 
order  to  jot  down  one  thing  or  other  on  a  slip  of  paper.  This 
requires  scarcely  two  minutes.  The  apothecary  prepares  the 
prescription  for  us,  and  what  a  convenience! 

"And  then  only  a  few  questions  to  ask  the  patient,  to  see  his 
"tongue  and  to  feel  his  pulse,  in  order  to  know  what  is  the  ail- 
ment. In  this  way  a  dozen  patients  are  prescribed  for  and  got 
rid  of  in  an  incredibly  short  space  of  time;  and  then  one  can 
have  to  himself  almost  the  whole  da}^!  By  this  method  the 
apothecary  remains  favorably  inclined  to  us;  and  who  does  not 
know  how  important  and  indispensable  his  favor  is  to  the 
physician  ? 

"  How  ill  fares  a  Homoeopathic  physician!  He  must  take  the 
trouble  to  inquire  about  all  the  circumstances  or  conditions  of 
the  patient  in  order  to  be  able  to  select  a  suitable  remedy. 
This  occasions  a  loss  of  time,  at  least  at  the  first  visit,  and  in 
this  time  the  ordinary  physician  can  prescribe  for  three  times  as 
many  patients;  and  then  he  gives  a  very  considerable  number  of 
glasses,  jars  and  boxes.  Sick  people  are  accustomed  to  these, 
and  they  like  to  have  many,  and  of  different  kinds;  but,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  little  that  the  Homoeopathist  gives  scarcely 
begets  the  confidence  of  the  sick.  It  would  be  foolish  to  reply 
that  the  Homoeopathic  physician  can  have  himself  better  paid, 
because  notwithstanding  the  loss  of  time  in  questioning  and 


96  LIFE   OF    HAHNEMANN. 

meditating,  yet  he  helps  the  patient  in  a  shorter  time  than  does 
the  Allopath. 

"And, besides  all  this,  all  the  rest  of  the  medical  fraternity  strive 
heartily  and  mightily  to  alienate  their  acquaintance  from  him. 
I  well,  too,  know  the  might  of  the  innumerable  lashing  tongues 
which  can  proscribe  one  Homoeopathic  physician.  My  worldly 
wisdom  protects  me  from  this  vituperation,  and  it  will  so  con- 
tinue to  do. 

"And  as  regards  the  seemingly  trifling  matter  of  conscience 
which  the  Homoeopathic  physician  awakens  and  develops  by 
his  precise  delineation  of  disease,  by  his  selection  of  the  ex- 
actly suitable  remedy,  and  by  the  conviction  that  he  should 
conscientiously  furnish  the  true  remedy  to  the  patient  with  his 
own  hands  and  supply  it,  too,  with  the  best  talent  at  his  com- 
mand, he  ought  to  strive  to  keep  it  pure. 

"But  in  this  respect  the  Allopathist  has  to  render  an  account 
to  no  one.  He  thinks,  though,  that  it  cannot  be  so  bad  and 
sinful  since  there  are  so  many  others  who  do  not  do  differently, 
and  that  if  there  is  a  future  beyond  the  grave,  and  an  account- 
ability is  to  be  rendered  there,  I  too  will  remain  where  those  many 
thousands  of  physician  are;  and  he  may  even  question  whether 
there  is  a  future,  since  so  many  jovial  brethren  say,  '  Eat,  drink 
and  be  merry,  for  there  is  no  pleasure  beyond  the  grave.' 
Though  the  conscience  may  sometimes  permit  itself  to  be  set 
aside  with  the  aid  of  a  glass  of  wine,  this  cannot  but  be  bad. 

"  In  fact,  whoever  has  led  for  a  few  years  the  jovial,  uncon- 
cerned and  easy-going  life  of  the  ordinary  practitioner  of  medi- 
cine, will  not  long  for  a  so-called  conscientious,  or  at  least  pains- 
taking, system  of  hsaling,  such  as  is  the  Homoeopathic.  For 
what  is  more  void  of  concern  and  more  easy  and  comfortable 
than  the  usual  method  of  healing? 

"And  the  third  purpose,  earning  a  better  livelihood,  is 
wholly  on  the  side  of  the  ordinary  physician.  For  we  should 
bear  in  mind  that  he  remains  pretty  nearly  in  the  customary 
groove,  or  rut  of  practice,  and  does  not  stumble  upon  any  inno- 
vation as  regards  his  patients,  and  but  little  in  respect  to  his 
colleagues  and  the  apothecaries.  And  ought  he  ever  to  lack 
customers  ?  The  apothecary  mostly  refers  patients  to  the 
physician  who  gives  plenty  of  prescriptions,  and  the  physicians 
do  not  advise  against  this,  for  the  apothecary  is  of  their  way  of 


CORRESPONDENCE    WITH    ROBBI.  g/ 

thinking.     And  how  many  patients  there  are  who  get  three  or 
four  prescriptions  daily. 

"The  more  of  such  prescriptions,  the  more  there  is  doing, 
and  the  greater  are  the  receipts  of  the  apothecary.  He,  too,, 
does  not  lack  a  good  income;  for  the  great  quantity  of  pre- 
scriptions furnish  it. 

"  If  you  wish  to  provide  yourself  as  a  matter  of  curiosity 
with  what  has  been  written  by  the  man  who  at  great  personal 
sacrifice,  has  dared  to  contradict  all  that  has  been  done  to  im- 
prove the  status  of  medicine  for  many  centuries,  I  respectfully 
refer  3^ou  to  the  following  few  books : 

"The  'Organon'  describes  the  various  diseases  and  the 
remedial  virtues  of  medicines  viewed  from  a  new  standpoint, 
and  applied  very  differently  from  what  has  been  done  hitherto. 

"The  'Fragmenta  de  viribus  Medicamentorum  positivis,'  two- 
volumes,  published  by  Ambr.  Barth,  Leipsic,  1805,  describes 
the  few  peculiar  medicinal  actions  or  effects  that  I  have  dis- 
covered, and  without  a  knowledge  of  which  I  think  that  we  can- 
not use  a  medicine  properly  and  rationally  in  any  ailment. 

"The  '  Pure  Materia  Medica'  is  a  continuation  of  the  '  Frag- 
menta,'  though  treating  of  only  a  small  part  of  the  medicines. 
The  first  volume  of  this  was  published  in  1811  by  Arnold,  at 
Dresden,  and  by  Bruder,  at  I,eipsic.  The  publication  of  the 
second  part  has  been  delayed  by  the  dilatoriness  of  the  publisher. 

"The  title  of  the  book  which  you  request  me  to  send  you  is 
'  Treasury  of  Medicine'  (Arzneischatz),  published  by  Wilhelm 
Fleischer,  1800.     It  contains  some  observations  of  mine. 

"M}^  contemporaries  must  resort  to  these  few  books,  in  order 
to  make  themselves  familiar  with  Homoeopathy;  for  I  have  not 
the  time  to  tell  to  each  personally  what  is  requisite  to  become 
a  Homoeopathist. 

"However,  if  I  can  be  of  assistance  to  you  in  understanding 
some  phases  of  the  subject,  I  will  gladly  give  you  audience  any 
forenoon  from  10:30  to  11  o'clock.  My  leisure  time  is  very 
limited  during  the  rest  of  the  day, 

"  S.  Hahnemann." 

What  a  quiet  bit  of  meaning  in  Hahnemann's  line  concerning 
the  Treasury  of  Medicine.  "It  contains  some  observations  of 
mine."  This  is  the  book  of  medical  prescriptions  for  whichi 
Hahnemann    wrote   that    famous   preface    ridiculing     and   con- 


98  LIFE   OF    HAHNEMANN. 

demning  the  whole  book.  It  certainly  did  contain  some  "  ob- 
servations !" 

Robbi  did  not  become  a  disciple.  He  entered  the  ranks  of 
Hahnemann's  detractors.  It  would  seem  that  he  did  not  in- 
tend to  honestly  investigate,  by  the  tenor  of  his  letter. 

Hahnemann's  letter  shows  his  opinion  of  Robbi;  one  reads 
between  its  lines  that  he  never  was  altogether  his  dupe,  but 
exercised  a  certain  forbearance  towards  that  young  hypocrite. 

Hahnemann  now  had  a  number  of  devoted  disciples  who 
-gladly  and  faithfully  assisted  him  in  testing  the  effects  of  drugs 
upon  their  own  healthy  systems.  This  was  a  season  of  triumph 
and  happiness  for  the  old  reformer;  he  was  busily  engaged  in 
his  favorite  studies,  and  he  also  had  the  satisfaction  of  knowing 
that  at  last  he  was  educating  others  to  aid  him  in  disseminating 
his  new  and  beneficent  law  of  medicine. 

In  connection  with  this  epoch  of  proving,  the  following  is  an 
extract  from  a  letter  written  to  Stapf  in  September,  1813:* 

' '  You  are  right  that  the  aggravation  by  any  substance,  or 
symptoms  which  are  present,  most  probably  indicates  that  the 
medicine  has  the  power  of  exciting  these  symptoms  of  itself. 
We  must  not,  however,  incorporate  such  symptoms  in  the  list  of 
the  positive  effects  of  the  medicine,  at  least  not  in  writing. 

"All  we  may  do  is  to  bear  them  in  mind,  so  as  to  direct  our 
attention  to  them  specially,  should  they  occur  for  the  first  time 
during  the  use  of  the  medicine. 

"  When  I  propose  any  substance  for  proving,  I  will  take  care 
that  it  is  not  one  that  is  dangerous  to  the  health,  and  so  pre- 
pared that  it  will  not  affect  you  too  violently;  for  we  are  not 
entitled  to  do  injury  to  ourselves.  I  send  you  along  with  this 
some  tincture  of  pure  Helleborus  niger,  which  I  gathered  myself. 
Each  drop  contains  one-twentieth  grain  of  the  root.  Any  day 
when  you  are  well,  and  have  no  very  urgent  business,  and  have 
not  eaten  au}^  medicinal  substance  (such  as  parsley)  at  dinner, 
take  one  drop  of  this  to  eight  ounces  of  water,  and  a  scruple  of 
alcohol  (to  prevent  its  decomposition),  shake  it  briskh-,  and  take 
an  ounce  of  it  while  fasting;  and  so  every  hour  and  a  half  or 
two  hours  another  ounce,  as  long  as  you  are  not  too  severely 
affected  by  what  you  take.  But  should  severe  symptoms  set  in, 
which  I  am  not  afraid  of,  you  may  take  some  drops  of  tincture 

*Stapf  s  "Neue  Archivs.,"  vol.  I.     Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  vol.  III.,  pp.  137-140. 


CORRESPONDENCE   WITH    ROBBI.  99 

of  Camphor  in  an  ounce  of  water,  or  more  if  necessary,  and  this 
will  allay  the  symptoms. 

"After  all  the  effects  of  the  Hellebore  have  subsided,  I  wish 
you  to  try  the  effects  of  Camphor  alone  (it  is  a  divine  remedy). 
About  two  grains  dissolved  in  a  scruple  of  alcohol,  and  shaken 
with  eight  ounces  of  water,  taken  four  or  six  times  a  day,  with 
similar  precaution  as  the  other. 

"  I  thank  you  for  the  symptoms  you  sent  me;  many  of  them 
are  very  important.  You  must  always  strive  to  discover  the 
exact  expression  for  your  sensations,  and  the  changes  in  your 
sensations,  as  well  as  the  conditions  under  which  they  are 
excited.  My  present  scholars  have  a  lighter  task  in  this  respect. 
Whenever  they  present  me  with  such  a  list,  I  go  through  the 
symptoms  along  with  them,  and  question  them  right  and  left,  so 
as  to  complete  from  their  recollection  whatever  requires  to  be 
more  explicit,  such  as  the  time,  conditions,  etc.,  in  which  the 
•changes  were  prescribed." 

Stapf  having  suggested  to  Hahnemann  the  plan  of  inviting 
physicians  to  assist  in  proving  medicines,  he  continues  in  the 
same  letter  as  follows:  "  But  all  this  you  must  do  for  yourself; 
you  must  go  through  the  written  prescription  in  order  to  find 
what  has  yet  to  be  reported.  In  this  respect  yours  is  a  harder 
task.  From  this  strictness  of  mine  for  the  promotion  of  the 
truth,  you  will  perceive  that  your  plan,  although  very  well 
meant,  is  quite  impracticable.  Which  of  our  everyday  col- 
leagues would  undertake  such  laborious  experiments?  When 
he  can  tap  upon  his  well-filled  receipt-book  and  say  :  '  Thou  art 
my  comfort;  never  can  I  be  in  doubt  what  to  prescribe  when  I 
have  thee  at  hand.  It  may  go  with  my  patients  as  it  likes;  I 
am  quite  safe.  These  receipts  of  the  learned  masters,  as  long  as 
T  prescribe  them,  no  person  can  find  fault  with  me.' 

"  It  would  be  in  vain  to  attempt  to  elevate  the  views  of  such 
people.  Even  if  we  had  an  eternity  to  expend  upon  them,  they 
never  would  resolve  upon  such  careful  experimental  ism,  since 
the  common  physician  feels  himself  so  comfortable  without 
•observing,  in  the  easy  following  of  others  in  quoting  'authority' 
for  everything,  in  speculating  and  assuming. 

"  No,  no,  dismiss  all  such  hopes.  Such  resolutions  are  not  to 
T^e  expected  from  such  people.  And  what  would  the  accom- 
plishment of  their   attempt  be,  suppose  they  made  an  attempt 


lOO  LIFE    OF   HAHNEMANN. 

out  of  curiosity.  Deceptions,  imaginative  stuff,  or  positive- 
falsehoods,  with  their  irregular  mode  of  life,  their  volatility  and 
their  deficiency  in  the  spirit  of  observation  and  integrity;  may 
God  keep  the  pure  doctrine  from  such  dross. 

"No,  it  is  only  the  young  whose  heads  are  not  deluged  to 
overflowing  with  a  flood  of  everyday  dogmas,  and  in  whose 
arteries  there  runs  not  yet  the  stream  of  medical  prejudice;  it  is 
only  such  young  and  candid  natures,  on  whom  truth  and  phil- 
anthropy have  got  a  hold,  who  are  open  to  our  simple  doctrine 
of  medicine;  it  is  only  those  who,  impelled  b}^  their  own  natural 
impulse  (as  I  gladly  observe  in  my  pupils)  to  restore  to  the 
light  of  day  by  their  devotion  to  the  truth,  those  treasures  of 
medicinal  action — inestimable  treasures  which  have  been  from  of 
old  allowed  to  lie  unknown  in  obscurity  of  self-complacent,  false 
reasoning  ingenuity;  and  I  think  some  of  them  have  made  con- 
siderable progress  in  the  practice  of  observation,  and  so  will  the 
good  spread,  but  only  where  it  finds  suitable  ground  and  soil. 

"One  word  more:  no  encomiums  of  me;  I  altogether  dislike 
them,  for  I  feel  myself  to  be  nothing  more  than  an  upright  man 
who  merely  does  his  duty.  Let  us  express  our  regard  for  one 
another  only  in  simple  words  and  conduct  indicating  mutual 
respect." 

It  should  be  remembered  that  Hahnemann  had  previously 
written  in  Hufeland's  journal  essays  explaining  his  opinions,, 
and  asking  tbe  aid  of  the  profession  in  his  plan  for  perfecting 
the  Materia  Medica.  Dudgeon  says  of  this:*  "Alas!  for  the 
boasted  zeal  and  earnestness  of  the  medical  profession,  Hahne- 
mann's appeal  met  with  nothing  but  derision  and  contempt  from, 
his  colleagues.  None,  not  one,  saw  the  utility  of  putting  him- 
self to  inconvenience  for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  the  powers 
of  the  instruments  he  was  hourly  called  upon  to  use  in  cases  of 
life  and  death.  One  and  all  were  perfecth'  satisfied  with  the 
traditional  system  they  and  their  ancestors  had  practiced." 

So,  with  his  coterie  of  earnest  students,  Hahnemann  quietly 
continued  to  experiment  with  medicines,  and  to  note  their 
effects  upon  each  healthy  person  until  a  great  book  filled  with 
the  provings  was  the  glorious  result;  a  book  whose  teaching 
has  since  been  the  means  of  removing  much  suffering  from 
humanity. 

*"  Lectures  on  Homoeopathy."     1854.     Page  179. 


HARTMANN  S   STORY.  lOI 

The  Story  of  the  life  of  Hahnemann  and  his  students  in  L,eip- 
sic  has  been  told  by  one  of  them,  Dr.  Franz  Hartmann.* 

These  events  happened  in  1814,  and  when  Hartmann  was 
•eighteen  years  of  age. 

Hartmann  saj^s  :  "  Hornburg  was  again  my  roommate;  after 
three  months'  residence  there  he  introduced  me  to  the  ac- 
quaintance of  Hahnemann,  and  sought  admission  for  me  into 
■the  narrow  circle  of  the  friends  of  this  great  man.  Whoever 
has  seen  Hahnemann,  has  personally  made  his  acquaintance 
-and  has  heard  him  speak,  were  it  but  once,  with  lofty  en- 
thusiasm and  transporting  eloquence,  of  his  important  discovery 
in  the  domain  of  practical  medicine,  will  surely  think  it  by  no 
means  strange  that  a  tyro  in  medicine  should  inwardly  resolve 
to  devote  his  whole  life  without  reserve  to  him  and  his  doctrine. 
I  am  confident  that  every  one  who  knew  Hahnemann  at  that 
time  agrees  with  me,  or  surely  does  not  blame  my  apparently 
extravagant  praise  of  this  venerable  man  endowed  by  nature 
with  such  a  lofty  intellect,  if  I  set  him  by  the  side  of  the 
;greatest  intellects  in  the  profession  in  our  time,  and  even  de- 
clare him  to  be  the  greatest  of  them  all,  since  no  physician  has 
commenced  such  a  gigantic  work,  and  one  so  likely  to  endure 
the  test  of  time,  nor  brought  it  to  such  a  pitch  of  perfection  that 
it  may  not  only  be  compared  with  former  medical  systems,  but 
is  in  many  respects  quite  superior  to  them. 

"  This  is  readily  admitted  now,  but  even  then,  when  I  made 
Hahnemann's  acquaintance,  his  fame  was  widespread,  and  he 
performed  cures  which  bordered  on  the  incredible,  and  which 
established  his  reputation  more  and  more  permanently.  This 
was  especially  the  case  with  those  frequently  recurring  diseases 
from  the  undue  use  of  medicines,  the  cure  of  which  was  the 
more  easy  to  him,  as  he  always  made  it  a  rule  in  his  inquiry 
into  the  physiological  effects  of  drugs  to  learn  with  accuracy 
the  antidote  of  each  one. 

' '  I  might  have  degenerated  into  a  mere  partisan  if  I  had  fol- 
lowed Hahnemann's  advice  to  study  nothing  but  his  system, 
which  had  a  firm  and  substantial  basis,  while  in  the  old  system 
nothing  was  reliable — a  suggestion  which  he  made  to  all  his 
pupils,  and  which  in  many  respects  has  been  the   occasion  of 

*Allgetneine  Homoopathische  Zeitung,  vols,  xxvi.,  xxxviii.,  xxxix.; 
Kleinert's  "  Geschichte  der  Hoinoopathie  ;"  Translations  in  Shipman's 
N.  W.  Jour.  Hoiii  ,  vol.  iv.,  3fed.  Counsellor,  vol.  xi. 


I02  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

great  mischief,  and  has  proved  unfortunate  to  many  of  his  ad- 
herents. I  observed  the  surprise  expressed  by  Hahnemann's 
countenance  when  I  asked  him  in  return  whether  it  would  an- 
swer well  merely  to  be  examined  in  Homoeopathy  alone.  The 
many  evasions  with  which  he  used  to  avoid  answering  this 
question  quite  convinced  me  of  the  danger  and  impracticability  of 
his  advice,  and  the  matter  was  never  mentioned  during  the 
course  of  my  studies  with  him;  indeed  he  seemed  purposely  to 
avoid  alluding  to  it  in  the  presence  of  the  other  young  men, 
many  of  whom  were  studying  with  him  at  the  same  time,  as  if 
he  perceived  how  untenable  was  his  position. 

"He  took  pleasure  in  conversing  with  me  on  the  sciences, 
and  was  always  most  enthusiastic  when  on  the  subject  of 
Materia  Medica  and  therapeutics.  I  always  took  especial  pains 
to  add  fuel  to  the  fire,  partly  because  his  fiery  zeal  was  enter- 
taining, and  partly  because  I  acquired  thereby  such  a  knowl- 
9dge  of  Homoeopathy,  and  for  many  practical  observations  upon 
Homoeopathy  I  am  indebted  to  these  explosions. 

"It  was,  moreover,  particularly  interesting  to  see  Hahne- 
mann, a  small,  thick-set  man,  constrained  in  his  gait  and  bear- 
ing, with  a  bald  head  and  a  high,  beautifully  formed  forehead; 
as  the  blood  at  such  times  crowded  up  to  his  head  the  veins  be- 
came turgid,  the  brow  was  flushed,  his  brilliant  eyes  sparkled, 
and  he  was  obliged  to  take  off"  his  little  cap  to  admit  the  cool 
air  to  his  heated  head.  It  was  usual!}'-  onl}'  scientific  subjects, 
and  among  these  his  new  doctrine  especially  which  could  excite 
him  to  such  a  degree  as  this,  and  could  inspire  him  with  the 
eloquence  of  an  apostle. 

"It  was  an  elevating  sight  for  his  pupils,  thus  to  see  the 
master  in  their  midst;  at  such  times  everyone  partook  of  his 
enthusiasm,  and  resolved  that  in  spite  of  every  persecution,  of 
which  we  had  already  experienced  enough,  that  he  would  pre- 
severe  and  aid  in  the  great  work,  for  which  Hahnemann  him- 
self offered  the  best  opportunities,  since  he  requested  everyone 
who  was  free  from  disease  to  engage  in  the  proving  of  drugs. 
Unlearned  as  we  yet  were  in  medicine,  and  still  more  unlearned 
in  the  proper  method  of  proving  drugs,  there  was  nothing  left 
for  him  but  to  teach  us  first,  and  to  instruct  us  minutely  in  the 
course  we  were  to  pursue,  in  every  respect;  this  he  did  in  a 
few  words,  but  in  the  clearest  and  most  perceptible  manner  as. 
follows  : 


HARTMANN  S    STORY    CONTINUED.  I03; 

"The  human  body,  when  it  has  attained  a  development 
nearly  complete,  is  the  least  exposed  to  sickness  from  transient 
influence,  or  from  the  deprivation  of  its  accustomed  food,  be- 
cause the  powers  of  life  existing  in  their  integrity  overpower 
any  injurious  effects  from  such  causes  before  they  can  make 
any  progress;  hence,  in  case  of  young  persons,  a  long  prepara- 
tory course  is  not  necessary  before  the  proving  of  a  drug;  a 
resolute  determination  alone  is  requisite  to  avoid  everything 
which  may  tend  to  disturb  the  process. 

"  During  such  a  proving  he  absolutely  forbade  coffee,  tea,  wine, 
brandy  and  all  other  heating  drinks,  as  well  as  spices,  such  as 
pepper,  ginger,  also  strongly  salted  foods  and  acids.  He  did 
not  forbid  the  use  of  the  light  white  and  brown  Leipsic  beer. 

"He  cautioned  us  against  close  and  continued  application  to 
study  or  reading  novels,  as  well  as  against  many  games  which 
exercised  not  merely  the  imagination,  but  which  required  con- 
tinued thought,  such  as  hazard,  cards,  chess,  or  billiards,  by 
which  observation  was  disturbed  and  rendered  untrustworthy. 
He  was  far  from  considering  idleness  as  necessary,  but  advised 
moderate  labor  only,  agreeable  conversation,  with  walking  in 
the  open  air,  temperance  in  eating  and  drinking,  early  rising,. 
for  a  bed  he  recommended  a  mattress  with  light  covering." 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

hartmann's  story  continued— methods  op  proving— Hahne- 
mann's DOMESTIC  IviPE — METHODS  OF  P]lESCRIBING. 

"  The  medicines  which  were  to  be  proved  he  gave  us  himself; 
the  vegetable  in  the  form  of  essence  or  tincture — the  others  in, 
the  first  or  second  trituration.  He  never  concealed  from  us  the 
names  of  the  drugs  which  were  to  be  proved,  and  .his  wish  that 
we  should  in  the  future  prepare  all  the  remedies  whose  effects 
we  had  while  students  conscientiously  tried,  fully  convinced  us, 
that  in  this  respect  he  had  never  deceived  us. 

"Since  he  for  the  most  part  had  previously  proved  the  drugs, 
upon  himself  and  his  family,  he  was  sufficiently  acquainted  with 
their  strength  and  properties  to  prescribe  for  each  prover  accord- 
ing to  his  individuality,  the  number  of  drops   or   grains   with^ 


104  LIFE    OF   HAHNEMANN. 

which  he  might  commence,  without  experiencing  any  injurious 
'effects.  The  dose  to  be  taken  was  mixed  with  a  great  quantity 
of  water,  that  it  might  come  in  contact  with  a  greater  surface 
■than  would  be  possible  with  an  undiluted  drug;  it  was  taken 
early  in  the  morning,  fasting,  and  nothing  was  eaten  for  an 
hour.  If  no  effect  was  experienced  in  three  or  four  hours,  a 
few  more  drops  were  to  be  taken;  the  dose  might  even  be 
doubled,  and  the  reckoning  of  time  was  to  begin  from  the  last 
dose;  the  same  was  the  case  where  the  drug  was  to  be  taken  for 
the  third  time.  If,  upon  the  third  repetition,  no  change  was 
remarked,  Hahnemann  concluded  tliat  the  organism  was  not 
susceptible  to  this  agent,  and  did  not  require  the  prover  to  make 
any  further  experiments  with  it,  but  after  several  days  gave 
him  another  drug  to  prove. 

"In  order  to  note  down  every  symptom  which  presented 
itself,  he  required  each  one  to  carry  a  tablet  and  lead  pencil 
with  him,  which  had  this  advantage,  that  we  could  describe  with 
precision  the  sensation  (pain)  which  we  experienced  at  the 
time,  while  this  precision  might  be  lost  if  these  sensations  were 
noted  down  at  some  subsequent  period.  Every  symptom  that 
presented  itself  must  be  given  in  its  connection,  even  though 
the  most  heterogeneous  symptoms  were  thus  coupled  together; 
but  our  directions  were  still  more  precise;  after  every  symptom 
we  must  specify  in  brackets,  the  time  of  its  occurrence,  which 
time  was  reckoned  from  the  last  dose.  It  was  only  when  one 
or  two  days  had  passed  without  the  occurrence  of  any  symptoms 
that  Hahnemann  supposed  the  action  of  the  drug  to  be  ex- 
hausted; he  then  allowed  the  system  a  time  to  rest  before 
another  proving  was  undertaken. 

"He  never  took  the  symptoms  which  we  gave  him  for  true 
-and  faithful,  but  always  reviewed  them  once  with  us,  to  be  sure 
that  we  had  used  just  the  right  expressions  and  signs,  and  had 
said  neither  too  much  nor  too  little.  At  first  it  often  happened 
that  there  were  errors  enough,  but  these  became  fewer  with 
■every  proving,  and  finally  there  were  none  at  all.  Peculiar 
care  is  needful  to  apprehend  symptoms  which  do  not  make 
themselves  50  very  prominent,  for  these  are  frequently  the  most 
important,  the  most  peculiar  and  the  most  characteristic,  of 
much  greater  significance  than  those  which  occur  with  violence. 
The  former  are  most  frequently  elicited  by  the  smaller  and  more 
delicate  doses,  while  the  latter  owe  their  origin  to  the  larger. 


HARTMANN  S   STORY   CONTINUED.  IO5 

"I  could  get  no  S5''mptoms  after  the  second  or  third  dose  if 
not  from  the  first.  If  after  the  first  dose  symptoms  presented 
themselves  even  faintly,  I  could  rely  on  more  characteristic 
symptoms  appearing  every  hour.  Our  old  Provers'  Union  con- 
sisted of  Stapf,  Gross,  Hornburg,  Franz,  Wislicenus,  Teuthorn, 
Herrmann,  Ruckert,  Langhammer,  and  myself  (Hartmann)." 

These,  the  first  pupils  and  adherents  of  Hahnemann,  were 
bound  very  closely  to  the  master.  Hartmann  gives  a  short 
sketch  of  the  personality  of  each.*  Franz,  who  had  been  cured 
by  Hahnemann  of  a  very  serious  disease,  was  older  than  the 
others,  and  was  his  assistant.  He  was  a  good  botanist  and 
collected  plants  for  the  master.  When  it  was  in  Hahnemann's 
•collection  then  no  time  was  lost  in  preparing  it  as  fast  as  possible 
for  medicinal  use.  Both  then  labored  with  diligence,  "  no  one 
was  ashamed  to  perform  the  humblest  labor,  the  chemical 
laboratory  was  a  sanctum  from  which  we  were  as  diflBcult  to 
drive  as  a  fox  from  his  burrow."  Franz  also  arranged  the  symp- 
toms of  the  provings,  according  to  the  schema  of  Hahnemann, 
■copying  them  many  times. f 

Hartmann  further  says  of  this  Provers'  Union:  "Their 
activity  as  drug  provers  began  with  Causticum  and  covered  the 
entire  period  from  the  second  to  the  sixth  part  of  the  Materia 
Medica  Pura,  without,  however,  ceasing  with  Stannum.  But  in 
■other  ways,  a  few  years  later,  were  they  active  factors  in  the  de- 
velopment of  Homoeopathy,  at  first  as  medical  practitioners  suc- 
cessfulh"  employed  in  every  special  field  of  labor;  later  as  con- 
tributors to  a  literature  which  was  now  aiming  to  construct,  then 
to  combat  opposition,  and  which  finally  sought  to  gain  proselytes 
among  professional  men  and  among  laymen." 

Hartmann  continues :  "  Hahnemann  was  an  honorable  man, 
and  the  peculiarities  for  which  he  was  blamed  were  probably 
due  to  the  unpleasant  situations  of  his  lifed  to  the  mistaking  of 
his  character,  the  unfounded  and  malicious  calumnies  and  in- 
vectives, and  his  final  withdrawal  from  all  social  intercourse. 

"His  only  faults  were  mistrust  and  avarice,  but  so  modified 


*Biographical  sketches  of  these  men  will  be  found  in  a  future  chapter. 

tShipman's  Northwestern  Journal  of  Honiceopathy,  vol.  4.  British 
Journal  Homoeopathy,  vol.32,  page 453.  "Leben  und  Wirken,"  1875.  All. 
Horn.  Zeit.,  vols.  26,  T)S,  T)^.  Kleinert's  "  Geschichte  der  Homoopathie," 
p.  88.     Med.  Counsellor,  vol.  11,  p.  238. 


Io6  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

that  only  a  long  intercourse  with  him  enabled  them  to  be  dis- 
covered.* 

"In  his  domestic  circle  he  displayed  an  amiabilit}^  that 
charmed  every  one,  as  I  with  others  of  his  favorite  students  had 
frequent  opportunities  for  observing.  There  sat  the  silver-haired 
old  man,  with  his  high,  arched,  thoughtful  brow,  his  bright, 
piercing  eyes,  and  calm,  searching  countenance,  in  the  midst  of 
us,  as  among  his  children,  who  likewise  participated  in  those 
evening  entertainments.  Here  he  showed  plainly  that  the 
serious  exterior  which  he  exhibited  in  every  day  life,  belonged 
only  to  his  deep  and  constant  search  after  the  mark  which  he 
had  fixed  for  himself,  but  was  in  no  respect  the  mirror  of  hi& 
interior,  the  bright  side  of  which  so  readily  unfolded  itself  on 
suitable  occasions  in  its  fairest  light,  and  the  mirthful  humour,, 
the  familiarity  and  openness,  the  wit  that  he  displayed  were 
alike  engaging. 

"How  comfortable  the  master  felt  in  the  circle  of  his  beloved 
and  his  friends,  among  whom  he  numbered  not  only  his  pupils 
but  also  the  learned  of  other  faculties,  who  did  homage  to  his 
learning;  how  beneficial  was  the  recreation  which  he  then 
allowed  himself  after  eight  o'clock  in  the  evening  seated  in  his- 
arm  chair,  with  a  glass  of  light  L,eipsic  white  beer.  It  was 
highly  interesting  at  such  times  to  see  him  become  cheerful,  as 
he  related  the  procedure  of  the  older  physicians  at  the  bed  of 
sickness,  when  with  an  animated  countenance  he  shoved  the 
little  cap  to  and  fro  upon  his  head,  and  puffed  out  clouds  of 
tobacco  smoke,  which  enveloped  him  like  a  fog;  when  he  spoke 
of  his  deeply  affecting  life  and  related  circumstances  of  it,  his 
pipe  often  went  out,  and  one  of  his  daughters  was  then  instantly 
required  to  light  it  again.  He  appeared  displeased  when  in  these 
hours  his  advice  was  sought  in  cases  of  disease.  He  was  then 
either  laconic,  or  called  out  to  the  patient  in  a  friendly  way,  'to- 
morrow on  this  subject.' 

"  His  hours  of  audience  were  from  9  to  12  in  the  morning,  and 
from  2  to  4  in  the  afternoon.  No  person  was  permitted  to  enter 
the  hall  who  had  not  first  passed  the  review,  which  function 
was  performed  every  week  alternately  by  one  of  his  daughters, 


-'^British  Journal  Homeopathy,  vol.  8,  page  548.  "  Caspari's  Domestic 
Physician,"  edited  by  Hartmann.  T.eipsic,  1850.  American  edition.  Phila- 
delphia, 1852. 


HARTMANN  S    STORV    CONTINUED.  107 

and  for  which  she  placed  herself  like  a  warder  at  a  little  window 
next  the  hall  door. 

"His  apartment  was  usuall}'  filled  with  patients.  He  exam- 
ined accurately,  and  wrote  down  in  his  journal  himself  all  the 
symptoms  of  which  the  patient  complained,  even  those  appar- 
ently insignificant,  to  which  he  successively  referred  previous  to 
furnishing  the  medicine  required,  and  which  was  obtained  from 
another  room.  After  the  clock  had  struck  12  in  the  morning 
and  4  in  the  afternoon  no  visit  from  any  quarter  was  received. 
At  12  to  the  minute  he  was  called  to  dinner,  after  which  his 
attention  was  not  easily  called  to  anything  else.  At  one  time, 
in  the  warmth  of  conversation  having  twice  disregarded  the  call, 
at  the  third  more  earnest  one  from  his  wife,  he  smilingly 
observed, .' This  time  I  shall  get  a  gloomy  look.'  This  expres- 
sion several  times  heard  from  him  convinced  me  that  this  great 
man,  who  had  so  much  influence  over  others,  had  to  be  placed 
under  a  guardian  in  his  own  house,  which,  however,  he  willingly 
endured,  and  granted  to  his  wife  this  slight  triumph,  since  she 
watched  with  the  greatest  attention  and  punctuality  all  his 
peculiarities,  sought  to  gratify  them,  permitted  him  to  want  for 
nothing,  and  also  undertook  alone  the  bringing  up  of  his  chil- 
dren, so  that  they  might  not  disturb  him  in  his  numerous  engage- 
ments. 

"After  the  expiration  of  the  time  allotted  to  giving  advice  in 
the  afternoon,  it  was  the  daily  custom  of  himself  and  family,  in 
all  weathers,  to  take  an  hour's  ramble  through  the  city,  where 
he  walked  arm  iu  arm  with  his  wife  in  the  van,  and  several 
paces  behind  them  came  his  three  daughters,  also  arm  in  arm; 
sometimes  a  more  extended  jaunt  to  Schleuzig,  little  Kuchen- 
garden  or  Gohlis  was  undertaken. 

"  He  sometimes  invited  us  to  supper;  the  food  was  temptingly 
savory,  and  instead  of  the  usual  white  beer  a  good  wine  was 
served.  Hahnemann  was  on  these  occasions  the  happiest  of 
men,  and  joined  with  the  rest  in  the  most  mischievous  mirth, 
without,  however,  violating  the  dignity  of  his  station  or  in  any 
respect  making  of  himself  a  target  for  wit. 

"About  II  o'clock  we  took  our  leave  of  Hahnemann  and 
banqueted  long  after  on  the  recollection  of  those  delightful 
evenings." 

It  may  be  mentioned   here  that   Hahnemann's  residence  in 


I08  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

Leipsic  was  in  the  Burgstrasse,  in  a  house  known  as  the  "  Gold- 
enen  Fahne." 

The  year  of  1813  was  one  of  triumph  to  Hahnemann.  The 
contagious  typhus  fever,  the  typhus  of  the  camps,  prevailed 
throughout  the  length  of  Germany.  Hahnemann  attended  cases 
of  this  terrible  disease  with  a  success  that  silenced  his  critics, 
and  proved  the  superiority  of  the  new  method  and  of  the  truth 
of  his  principle.  This  malady  was  introduced  by  the  French  in 
the  retreat  from  Russia.  Out  of  the  great  number  treated  by 
Hahnemann  he  lost  but  two — an  old  man,  and  another  who  died 
from  neglect  in  his  diet. 

In  January,  1814,  he  published  in  \.\\s.  Allgemeine  Anzeiger  an 
article  on  the  ' '  Treatment  of  the  Typhus  or  Hospital  Fever  at 
Present  Prevailing."  In  this  he  gives  an  account  of  his  suc- 
cesses with  Bryonia  and  Rhus  tox. 

In  1 8 16  we  find  Hahnemann  contrary  to  his  usual  customs, 
engaged  in  a  battle  of  polemics  with  one  Professor  Dzondi,  of 
Halle,  in  regard  to  the  right  treatment  of  burns.  Dr.  Dzondi 
had,  in  the  Anzeiger,  recommended  the  use  of  cold  water,  and 
Hahnemann  mentions  radiated  heat  and  other  warm  applications. 
He  published  two  articles  on  the  subject.* 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

VON  BRUNNOW'S  STORY — HAHNEMANN'S  APPEARANCE — MODE  OF 
LIFE   AT   HIS   HOUSE — PRINCE  SCHWARTZENBERG. 

At  this  period  of  his  busy  life  Hahnemann  did  not  leave  his 
house  to  visit  patients.  His  time  was  entirely  devoted  to  his 
lectures,  his  studies,  and  his  consultations  at  home.  He,  how- 
ever, in  fine  weather  took  a  daily  promenade  with  his  wife  and 
children.  Hartmann's  narrative  in  the  preceding  chapter  en- 
ables one  to  form  a  very  distinct  idea  of  his  home  life. 

He  attracted  to  him  others  than  medical  men,  many  of  whom 
were  greatly  impressed  with  the  old  philosopher,  and,  too,  be- 
came his  followers. 

*"  Ivesser  Writings,"  New  York.      1852. 


VON   BRUNNOW  S    STORY.  109 

The  following  interesting  story  was  written  by  one  of  these,  a 
young  law  student,  the  Baron  von  Brunnow:* 

Ernst  George  von  Brunnow  was  born  at  Dresden,  April  6, 
1796,  and  died  there.  May  5,  1845.  He  was  of  a  noble  Courland 
family.  Ill  health  prevented  him  from  devoting  himself  to 
philosophy  and  law,  and  he  cultivated  lighter  literature.  He 
became  a  convert  to  Hahnemann  by  whom  he  was  greatly  bene- 
fited in  health.  He  translated  the  "Organon"  into  French; 
assisted  in  the  lyatin  translation  of  the  "Materia  Medica  Pura,' 
and  was  also  the  author  of  several  novels. 

He  says:  "  It  was  011  a  clear  spring  day  of  the  year  1816  that  I, 
a  j'oung,  newly  enrolled  student  of  law,  sauntered  with  some  of  my 
companions  along  the  cheerful  promenade  of  Leipsic.  Among  the 
teachers  of  the  University  were  to  be  found  at  that  time  many 
notables,  and  not  a  few  originals.  Many  a  professor  and  master 
stalked  gravely  along  in  the  old-fashioned  dress  of  the  former 
century,  with  peruque  and  bag,  silk  stockings,  and  buckles  on 
his  shoes,  while  the  pampered  sons  of  the  landed  gentry  swag- 
gered about  in  hussar  jackets  and  pantaloons  ornamented  with 
points,  or  in  leather  breeches,  with  high  dragoon  boots  and 
clinking  spurs. 

"  'Tell  me,"  said  I  to  an  older  student  than  myself,  who  was 
walking  with  me,  '  who  is  that  old  gentleman  with  so  extra- 
ordinarily intelligent  a  countenance,  who  walks  respectfully  arm 
in  arm  with  his  somewhat  corpulent  spouse,  and  is  followed  by 
two  pairs  of  rosy  girls?' 

"' That  is  the  celebrated  Doctor  Hahnemann  with  his  wife 
and  daughters.  He  takes  a  walk  regularly  every  afternoon 
round  the  town  with  his  wife  and  daughters,'  was  the  reply. 

" 'What,'  rejoined  I,  'is  there  about  this  Hahnemann  that 
makes  him  celebrated  ?' 

"' Why  he  is  the  discoverer  of  the  Homoeopathic  system  of 
medicine,  which  is  turning  old  medicine  topsy  turvy,'  replied 
my  acquaintance,  who,  like  myself,  was  from  Dresden  and  had 
also  enlisted  himself  under  the  colors  of  Themis. 

*"Ein  blick  auf  Hahuemaun  und  die  Homoopathik,  Leipzig:  Teubner, 
1844."  (A  glance  at  Hahnemauu  and  Homoeopathy.')  Trans,  into  English 
by  Norton,  in  1845,  in  London.  See  also  London  Horn.  Times,  Vol.  I.,  p. 
688;  Kirby's  Am.  Jour.  Ham.,  Vol.  V.,  p.  157;  Shipman's  N.  W.  Jour. 
Horn.,  Vol.  I.,  p.  91 ;  Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  III.,  p.  119. 


no  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

"  My  curiosity  was  excited  and  I  wished  to  know  something- 
more  about  him.  My  companion  belonged  to  the  enthusiastic 
admirers  of  Hahnemann  who  attended  his  lectures  and  gladly 
assisted  in  the  proving  of  medicines.  Everything  he  told  me 
about  this  remarkable  man  excited  my  interest  in  the  highest 
degree.  From  my  childhood  I  had  been  delicate  and  a  victim  to 
physic,  so  that  my  confidence  in  medicine  was  very  frail. 

"Besides  other  grievances,  I  suffered  especially  from  my 
eyes,  which  I  required  at  that  time  most  especiall)^  Impelled 
by  hope  I  read  the  'Organon,'  and  was  more  and  more  taken 
with  Homoeopathy  at  every  line. 

"  It  was  the  first  medical  book  I  had  had  in  my  hand,  so  that 
it  did  not  strike  me  at  that  time  that  doctrines  which  appeared 
so  clear,  supported  by  reasoning  so  consistent,  might  be  yet  too 
exclusive  in  their  character  and  have  their  dark  side.  I  was  a 
zealous  proselyte,  and,  like  all  neophytes,  admitted  no  salvation 
beyond  the  pale  of  my  own  church  I  made  the  resolution  of 
putting  myself  under  Hahnemann's  treatment. 

"Hahnemann  at  that  time  was  in  his  sixty -second  year. 
Locks  of  silver  white  clustered  round  his  high  and  thoughtful 
brow,  from  under  which  his  animated  eyes  shone  with  piercing 
brilliancy.  His  whole  countenance  had  a  quiet,  searching, 
grand  expression;  only  rarely  did  a  gleam  of  fine  humor  play 
over  the  deep  earnestness,  which  told  of  the  many  sorrows  and 
conflicts  endured.  His  carriage  was  upright,  his  step  firm,  his 
motions  as  lively  as  those  of  a  man  of  thirty.  When  he  went 
out  his  dress  was  of  the  simplest;  a  dark  coat,  with  short  small 
clothes  and  stockings.  But  in  his  room  at  home  he  preferred 
the  old  household,  gaily-figured,  dressing  gown,  the  yellow 
stockings  and  the  black  velvet  cap. 

"The  long  pipe  was  seldom  out  of  his  hand,  and  the  smoking 
was  the  onl}'  infraction  he  allowed  himself  to  commit  upon  his 
severe  rules  of  regimen.  His  drink  was  water,  milk,  or  white 
beer;  his  food  of  the  most  frugal  sort.  The  whole  of  his  domestic 
economy  was  as  simple  as  his  food  and  dress.  Instead  of  a 
writing  desk  he  used  nothing  but  a  large  plain  deal  table,  upon 
which  there  constantly  lay  three  or  four  enormous  folios,  in 
which  he  had  written  the  history  of  the  cases  of  his  patients, 
and  which  he  used  diligently  to  turn  up  and  write  in  while  con- 
versing with  them.     For  the  examination   of  his   patients  was 


VON    BRUNNOW  S    STORY.  Ill 

made  with   all  the  minuteness  of  which  he   has  given  an  ex- 
ample in  the  '  Organon.' 

"A  very  peculiar  mode  of  life  prevailed  in  Hahnemann's 
laouse.  The  members  of  his  family,  the  patients  and  students  of 
the  University,  lived  and  moved  only  in  one  idea,  and  that  was 
Homoeopathy;  and  for  this  each  strove  in  his  own  way.  The 
four  grown-up  daughters  assisted  their  father  in  the  prepara- 
tion of  his  medicines,  and  gladly  took  part  in  the  provings;  and, 
still  more,  this  was  done  by  obliging  students,  whose  names  will 
be  found  carefully  recorded  in  connection  with  their  individual 
observations  in  the  'Materia  Medica  Pura.'  That  these  experi- 
ments were  not  at  all  injurious  to  those  engaged  in  them  I  can 
testify  from  personal  observation. 

"The  patients  enthusiastically  celebrated  the  effects  of  Homoe- 
opathy, and  devoted  themselves  as  apostles  to  spread  the  fame  of 
the  new  doctrine  among  unbelievers.  All  who  adhered  to 
Hahnemann  were  at  that  time  the  butt  of  ridicule  or  the  objects 
of  hatred.  But  so  much  the  more  did  the  Homoeopathists  hold 
together,  like  members  of  a  persecuted  sect,  and  hung  with 
more  exalted  reverence  and  love  upon  their  honored  head. 

"After  the  day  had  been  spent  in  labor,  Hahnemann  was  in 
the  habit  of  recruiting  himself  from  eight  to  ten  o'clock  by 
conversation  with  his  circle  of  trusty  friends.  All  his  friends 
and  scholars  had  then  access  to  him,  and  were  made  welcome 
to  partake  of  his  L,eipsic  white  beer  and  join  him  in  a  pipe  of 
tobacco.  In  the  middle  of  the  whispering  circle  the  old  ^scula- 
pius  reclined  in  a  comfortable  arm  chair,  wrapped  in  the  house- 
hold dress  we  have  described,  with  a  long  Turkish  pipe  in  his 
ihand,  and  narrated  by  turns  amusing  and  serious  stories  of  his 
storm-tossed  life,  while  the  smoke  from  his  pipe  diffused  its 
clouds  around  him. 

"Next  to  the  natural  sciences  the  condition  of  foreign  nations 
formed  a  most  favorite  subject  for  conversation.  Hahnemann 
had  a  special  fondness  for  the  Chinese,  and  for  this  reason,  that 
among  them  the  children  were  educated  in  the  strictest  obedi- 
-ence  and  respect  for  their  parents,  duties  which  in  the  civilized 
countries  of  Europe  were  becoming  more  and  more  neglected. 
Indeed  the  family  of  Hahnemann  presented  a  pattern  of  the  old 
German  system  of  training  children.  The  children  displayed 
not  only  obedience,  but  the  most  hearty  love  towards  their 
parents. 


112  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

"Although  living  in  luxurious  and  elegant  Leipsic,  yet  the 
daughters  of  Hahnemann  took  no  part  in  any  public  amuse- 
ment; they  were  clad  in  the  simplest  fashion,  and  undertook 
most  cheerfully  the  humblest  household  services.  Hahnemann 
had  but  little  satisfaction  from  his  son,  who  led  so  foolish  a  life 
in  the  place  where  he  was  settled  as  to  be  obliged  to  leave  it. 
His  father  never  mentioned  him. 

'From  his  pupils  Hahnemann  exacted  not  only  intelligence 
and  diligence,  but  the  strictest  propriety  of  life.  I  know  of 
one  case  in  which  he  peremptorily  closed  the  door  against  a 
young  and  talented  medical  student  whom  he  discovered  to  be 
living  with  a  person  of  loose  character. 

"With  regard  to  religion,  Hahnemann,  who  belonged  to  the 
Lutheran  confession,  held  aloof  from  all  dogmatic  creeds.  He 
was  a  pure  Deist,  but  he  was  this  with  full  conviction. 

"  'I  cannot  cease  to  praise  and  thank  God  when  I  contemplate 
his  works,'  he  was  accustomed  to  say. 

"Strict  as  was  the  obedience  Hahnemann  demanded  from  his 
children,  as  a  husband  he  was  far  from  having  the  rule  in  his 
own  hands.  His  tall  and  stout  wife,  who,  as  Agnes  Frei  did  to 
the  noble  painter,  Albrecht  Durer,  gave  him  many  a  bitter  hour, 
exercised  the  most  baneful  influence  upon  him.  It  was  she  whO' 
cut  him  off  from  society  and  set  him  against  his  medical  col- 
leagues. It  was  she  who  often  caused  dissension  between  him- 
self and  his  most  faithful  pupils  if  they  did  not  treat  the 
doctor's  wife  with  the  deepest  respect.  Notwithstanding  this, 
Hahnemann  was  accustomed  to  call  this  scolding  Xantippe,  who- 
took  pleasure  in  raising  a  storm  in  the  house,  'the  noble  com- 
panion of  his  professional  life.' 

"During  my  latter  years  at  Leipsic  Hahnemann's  prospects- 
were  somewhat  overclouded.  His  flourishing  practice  and 
numerous  adherents  had  become  too  alarming  to  his  adversaries 
not  to  prompt  them  to  take  such  active  measures  for  his  suppres- 
sion as  lay  withi'n  their  power.  The  implement  to  effect  this 
was,  naturally  enough,  the  laws  against  his  dispensing  his  own 
medicines.  The  matter  was  brought  before  the  courts  of  medical 
jurisprudence,  and  from  them  Hahnemann  appealed,  and  the 
decision  was  delayed. 

"At  this  time  one  of  the  heroes  of  the  German  war  of  libera- 
tion, the  Austrian   Field  Marshal,  Prince  Schwartzenberg,  had 


I 


HAHNEMANN  S    OPINION    OF   AI^LOPATHY.  II3, 

become  affected,  besides  other  complaints,  with  an  apoplectic 
palsy  of  the  right  side,  and  for  this  he  had  tried  the  skill  of  all 
the  most  eminent  physicians  in  vain.  Homoeopathy  alone  had 
not  yet  been  tried,  and  to  enable  him  to  get  all  the  advantages 
of  the  new  system  he  came  to  L,eipsic,  to  place  himself  under 
Hahnemann's  own  eye.  The  first  consequence  of  this  honorable 
tribute  to  Hahnemann  was  the  suspension  of  the  process  the 
apothecaries  had  commenced  against  him.  Had  Prince  Schwartz- 
enberg  recovered,  then  had  Homoeopathy  enjoyed  an  immediate 
triumph  in  Saxony,  and  even  in  all  Germany ;  but  every  art  has 
its  limits.  Hahnemann  undertook  the  case  as  a  desperate  one 
on  which  he  could  try  the  effects  of  Homoeopathy.  To  the 
astonishment  of  all,  the  patient  felt  himself  better  from  day  to- 
day; and  he  was  seen  driving  about  after  a  little  time;  but  the 
powers  of  life  had  been  too  much  weakened  to  permit  of  his 
recovery. 

"The  former  malady  returned,  and  the  Field  Marshal  died  in 
the  same  town  into  which,  in  the  same  month  of  the  year  18 13, 
he  had  entered  as  a  conqueror. 

"Although  the  post-mortem  proved  that  no  medical  skill 
could  by  any  possibility  have  been  successful  in  the  case,  yet  the 
issue  of  it  was  very  injurious  to  Hahnemann.  The  suspended 
process  was  immediately  resumed,  and  it  was  decided  that 
Hahnemann  must  give  up  dispensing  his  own  medicines." 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

HAHNEMANN'S    OPINION    OF   ALI^OPATHY — NEW  PERSECUTIONS — 

APPEAI.  TO  THE  COURTS — THE  LEIPSIC  APOTHECARIES — 

TREATMENT    OP    FIEIvD     MARSHAL    SCHWARTZ- 

ENBERG    AND    HIS    DEATH. 

Quite  a  good  idea  of  the  relations  of  Hahnemann  with  the 
Allopathic  school  may  be  obtained  by  the  lollowing  extract  from 
a  letter  written  January  24,  1814,  to  his  friend.  Dr.  Brnst  Stapf: 
"  I  wish  I  could  avoid  reference  to  Homoeopathy  in  all  future 
anonymous  writings  so  that  we  might  get  practitioners  to  make 


114  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

trials  without  their  knowing  all  at  once  how  the  cures  they  thus 
make  are  effected.  They  would  afterwards  learn  that  to  their 
confusion.  For  were  they  to  know  beforehand  the  rationale  of 
the  action  of  the  remedies  they  would  scorn  to  use  them  and 
refuse  to  make  a  trial  of  them,  as  was  recently  done  by  a  certain 
Dr.  Riedel,  of  Penig,  now  dead,  poor  man,  who  had  much  to  do 
with  the  present  epidemic  of  hospital  fever,  and  sent  many  to 
their  last  home. 

"When  some  one  suggested  to  him  a  trial  of  my  method,  he 
exclaimed:  'I  would  die  sooner  than  take  Hahnemann's  medi- 
cines,' just  as  if  I  had  other  medicines  than  the  rest  of  my  fellow- 
worms.  He  caught  the  fever  and  died.  I  was  sorry  for  the 
poor,  misguided  man.  We  should  feel  compassion  for  those  poor 
creatures.  'Father,  forgive  them,  for  they  know  not  what  they 
■do.'  "* 

At  another  time  Hahnemann  thus  mentions  the  Allopathic 
system :  ' '  The  small  amount  of  medical  instruction  which  there  is 
in  the  immense  number  of  medical  works  consists  in  the  cure, 
accidentally  discovered,  of  two  or  three  diseases  produced  by  a 
miasm  of  a  constant  character,  as  autumnal,  intermittent,  marsh 
fever,  venereal  diseases,  and  cloth  worker's  itch.  To  this  may 
be  added  the  accidental  discovery  of  preservation  from  small- 
pox by  vaccination.  Now  these  three  or  four  cures  are  effected 
only  in  virtue  of  the  principle  similia  similibus.  Medicine  has 
nothing  more  of  a  positive  character  to  offer  us;  since  the  time  of 
Hippocrates  the  cure  of  all  other  diseases  has  remained  un- 
known."! 

The  year  1819  proved  to  be  one  of  great  persecution  to  the 
Master.  On  December  16,  181 9,  the  apothecaries  of  Leipsic 
presented  to  the  city  council  a  memorial  in  which  they  com- 
plained of  their  rights  being  encroached  upon  by  Dr.  Hahne- 
mann's dispensing  his  own  medicines.  They  still  reserved  the 
right  to  proceed  at  any  time  in  the  future  against  his  students 
who  were  also  dispensing  their  own  medicines. 

On  the  9th  of  February,  1820,  he  appeared  before  the  Court  of 
Aldermen  of  Leipsic  to  answer  the  charge,  and  responded  in    an 

*Hom.  World,  Vol.  XXIV.,  p.  208  ;  Med.  Counselor,  Vol.  VI.,  p.  139. 
-^K.irhy's  American  Journal  0/ Hoin.,  Vol.  I.,  p.  8. 


hahnkmann's  opinion  of  allopathy.  115 

•essay,  entitled:*     "Representation  to  a  Person  High  in  Author- 
ity." 

It  was  a  remonstrance  addressed  to  the  Chief  Magistrate,  and 
in  it  he  argues  the  question  at  length.  He  says  that  the  ob- 
jections of  the  apothecaries  to  his  dispensing  of  medicines  are 
not  tenable;  that  his  system  of  medicine  has  nothing  in  common 
with  the  ordinary  medical  art;  that  the  old  system  "makes  use 
of  complex  mixtures  of  medicines,  each  containing  several  in- 
gredients in  considerable  quantity,"  and  which  require  much 
time  to  compound  as  well  as  a  skill  in  the  preparation  that  the 
physician  does  not  always  possess;  that  the  right  to  dispense 
medicines  was  by  law  conceded  to  the  apothecar)^  for  these  rea- 
sons; that  wherever  any  royal  decree  occurred  it  referred  to  the 
preparation  of  "compound  medicinal  formulas;"  that  the  exclu- 
sive right  of  the  druggist  "is  only  to  make  up  the  mixtures 
•ordered  in  prescriptions  containing  several  medicinal  ingredients, 
and  is  not  in  the  least  degree  interfered  with  by  the  new  method 
of  treatment  called  Homoeopathy;"  that  Homoeopathy  has  no 
■compound  prescriptions  for  the  apothecary,  but  gives  "in 
:all  cases  of  illness  one  single,  simple  medicinal  substance  in  an 
unmedicinal  vehicle;"  that  it  therefore  does  not  compound  nor 
■dispense,  and  "that  its  practice  cannot  be  included  in  the  pro- 
hibition to  dispense  contained  in  the  laws  regarding  medicine." 
He  then  pleads  in  favor  of  the  new  system  of  practice;  of  the 
impossibility  of  the  apothecary  being  of  use;  that  if  the  Leipsic 
apothecary  still  persists  in  his  demands  it  points  to  some  secret 
tmotive  at  work  to  throw  obstacles  in  the  way  of  the  develop- 
•ment  of  the  new  healing  art. 

At  closing  he  says:  "Finally,  so  far  as  my  pupils  are  con- 
•cerned,  I  am  not  in  any  way  connected  with  them,  and  since 
they  are  of  different  calibre  I  do  not  represent  them.  I  consider 
mo  man  my  disciple  who,  next  to  an  absolutely  blameless  and 
thoroughly  moral  life,  does  not  so  practice  the  new  art  that  the 
Temed}^  which  he  administers  to  his  patient  in  a  non-medicinal 
vehicle  (sugar  of  milk  and  diluted  alcohol)  contains  so  small  a 
•dose  of  the  medicinal  substance  that  neither  the  senses  nor 
chemical  analysis  demonstrates  the  smallest  amount  of  an  ab- 
solutely harmful  medicine  or   even    the   smallest    amount   of  a 

*"  Lesser  Writings."  Kleinert's  "Gescbichte  der  Homoopathie,"  Med. 
Coun.,  Vol.  XI.,  p.  347. 


Il6  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

medicinal  substance  proper;  this  supposes  a  minuteness  of  doses 
of  medicine  which  absolutely  does  away  with  the  necessity  of 
exercising  anything  like  official  supervision  and  care  on  the 
part  of  the  authorities. 

"  Dr.  Samuel  Hahnemann, 
"Member  of  several  learned  societies." 

'■'■  Leipsic,  February  i^,  1820.'^ 

The  address  was  carefully  and  temperately  arranged,  but  was 
of  no  avail.  He  was  soon  after  publicly  notified  at  his  own 
dwelling  "that  he  would  be  held  to  the  penalty  of  twenty 
thalers  for  the  dispensation  of  each  and  every  article  of  medi- 
cine to  any  person  whomsoever,  lest  he  should  give  occasion  to 
more  severe  measures.  "* 

Nothing  now  seemed  possible  but  that  the  old  man  again 
should  be  compelled  to  make  for  himself  and  his  family  another 
home.  But  just  as  he  was  looking  about  for  .some  future 
refuge  from  the  persecutions  of  his  enemies,  a  certain  circum- 
stance happened  that  for  a  time  stopped  the  opposition.  Of  this 
period  Hartmann  saysrf 

"In  the  year  1820  an  event  occurred  of  the  greatest  importance 
to  Homoeopathy,  the  arrival  of  the  Austrian  Field  Marshal  von 
Schwartzenberg.  who  came  to  I,eipsic  to  be  treated  homoeo- 
pathically,  under  the  very  eyes  of  Hahnemann  himself.  Dr. 
Marenzeller,  of  Prague,  a  military  surgeon,  who  had  given  some 
attention  to  Homoeopathy,  was  the  cause  of  Schwartzenberg' s 
determination. 

"Hahnemann  had  previously  received  a  letter  from  the  Mar- 
shal, asking  him  to  visit  Vienna,  where  he  then  resided,  in 
order  to  treat  him.  To  this  Hahnemann  replied  that  his  many 
literary  and  scientific  labors  would  not  permit  so  long  an  ab- 
sence from  lycipsic,  and  that  if  he  wished  to  consult  him  he 
must  visit  T,eipsic. 

"  It  was  a  great  triumph  for  Hahnemann  to  see  this  celebrated 
man  place  himself  under  the  Homoeopathic  treatment,  but  quite 
as  great  was  the  jealousy  which  our  adversaries,  especially  the 
physicians  of  the  old  school,  manifested  in  many  ways  against 
Hahnemann    and    his   new    doctrine.     The  constant  watch,  or 

*Hartmann's  Life  of  Hahnemaun. 

tExperieuce  and  Observations  of  Homoeopathy.  A^.  IV.  Jour.  Horn., 
Vol.,  IV.,  p.  203.     Also  Allgem.  Horn.  Zeit.,  Vols.  XXXVIIL,  XXXIX. 


HAHNEMANN  S    OPINION    OF   ALI.OPATHY.  II7 

rather  spying,  of  his  patients,  and,  still  more,  of  his  students, 
was  practiced  after  this  with  much  more  rigor,  and  the  extreme 
malignity  with  which  it  was  done  excited  the  indignation  even  of 
those  who  were  devoted  to  the  old  school.  It  was  no  scientific 
strife,  but  the  furious  cry  of  enraged  fanaticism.  A  quiet  spec- 
tator must  have  compared  their  senseless  doings  to  the  tarantula 
dance. 

"All  joined  in  an  absolute  war  of  extermination,  and  they 
were  not  ashamed  to  use  the  most  reprehensible  weapons.  It 
was  a  time  of  the  greatest  depression  and  persecution  of  Homoe- 
opathy. It  was  easy  to  see  that  Hahnemann's  doctrine  would 
prove  a  thorn  in  the  flesh  to  physicians  of  the  old  school,  since 
it  threatened  grievously  to  compromise  their  pecuniary  interests, 
for,  although,  as  yet  in  its  infancy,  it  had  already  shown  itself 
superior  to  the  old  system  in  many  incurable  diseases. 

"This  doctrine  was  not  to  be  met  with  calumny,  and  some 
other  method  must  be  adopted  for  its  overthrow.  This  was 
found  in  accusations  against  the  Homceopathists  for  dispensing 
their  own  medicines,  which  was,  in  Hahnemann's  opinion,  an 
indispensable  requisite  of  the  new  doctrine. 

' '  The  medical  treatment  of  Prince  von  Schwartzenberg  put  an 
•end  to  these  quarrels,  as  the  Saxon  government,  out  of  regard  to 
the  exalted  patient,  checked  these  unjust  persecutions  by  an 
exercise  of  its  sovereign  authority.  But  to  ensure  the  destruc- 
tion of  Hahnemann,  and  since  no  time  was  to  be  lost,  Hahne- 
mann's pupils  living  at  Leipsic,  the  most  of  whom  were,  as  yet, 
without  the  jus  pradicandi,  were  watched  with  the  greatest 
rigor,  so  that  they  might  be  attacked,  should  they  attempt  the 
treatment  of  the  sick,  with  a  double  accusation — that  of  illegally 
practicing  and  of  dispensing  their  own  medicines,  though  all 
medical  students  were  in  the  habit  of  treating  patients. 

"Dr.  Clarus,  then  Professor  of  Clinical  Medicine,  was  very 
active  in  this  opposition.  It  was  by  his  instigation,  also,  that  in 
the  year  1821  the  Homoeopathic  medicines  were  taken  from  the 
residence  of  Hornburg  and  Franz,  on  the  part  of  the  Court  of 
the  University  and  the  First  Actuary,  and  by  the  aid  of  two 
beadles,  and  were  burned  in  St.  Paul's  churchyard,  a  transaction 
which  would  have  hardly  found  an  excuse  in  the  Dark  Ages. 

"It  was  Dr.  Clarus  who,  in  1821,  at  the  head  of  thirteen 
Leipsic  physicians,  attacked  Hahnemann  in  the  \^€v^€\c  Jozirnal, 


Il8  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

to  show  that  the  prevalent  purple  rash,  known  as  rother  hund, 
was  nothing  else  than  scarlet  fever  and  should  be  so  treated."* 

In  a  previous  chapter  may  be  found  Hahnemann's  refutation, 
published  in  1806,  of  the  report  made  by  the  physicians  that. 
Belladon7ia  was  useless  in  the  treatment  of  scarlet  fever,  in  which 
he  says  that  they  confounded  this  disease  with  the  purpura 
miliaris,  for  which  Belladon7ia  was  useless. 

They  had  used  Belladonria  and  then  declared  that  it  was  of  no 
value,  when  in  fact  they  had  used  it  not  for  scarlet  fever,  but  for 
a  different  disease.  In  1821,  Hahnemann  wrote  a  short  account 
for  the  Allgem.  Anzeiger  der  Deiitschen  of  the  proper  treatment, 
of  the  purpura  miliaris.  He  says  :  "Almost  all  those,  without 
exception,  who  are  affected  by  the  red  miliary  fever  (falsely 
called  scarlet  fever)  that  is  so  often  fatal,  will  not  only  be  res- 
cued from  death,  but  also  be  cured  in  a  few  days,  by  Aconite 
given  alternately  with  7 indure  0/ raza  cOj^ee.  *  *  *  Besides 
this  nothing' should  be  done  or  given  to  the  patient — no  venesec- 
tion, no  leeches,  no  Calomel,  no  purgative,  no  cooling  or  diapho- 
retic medicine  or  herb-tea,  no  water  compresses,  no  baths,  no 
clysters,  no  gargles,  no  vesicatories,  or  sinapisms. 

"The  patients  should  be  kept  in  a  moderately  warm  room 
and  allowed  to  adapt  their  bed  coverings  to  their  own  feelings, 
and  to  drink  whatever  they  like,  warm  or  cold,  only  nothing 
acid  during  the  action  of  Aconite. 

"But  even  should  these  remedies  be  prepared  and  administered 
as  directed,  where  is  the  practitioner  who  would  refrain  from 
giving  something  or  another  from  his  routine  system,  thus  ren- 
dering the  treatment  nugatory  ?"t 

In  a  note  to  Paragraph  38  of  the  fifth  edition  of  the  "  Organon," 
he  say:  "The  true  scarlet  fever  of  Sydenham  has  been  very 
accurately  described  by  Withering  and  Plenciz,  and  differs 
greatly  from  purpura,  to  which  they  often  give  the  name  of 
scarlet  fever." 

Again  in  a  note  to  Paragraph  73,  he  says:  "Subsequent  to 
the  year  1801,  a  purple  miliary  fever  came  from  the  west  of 
Europe,  which  physicians  have  confounded  with  scarlet  fever, 
although  the  signs  of  these  two  affections  are  entirely  different, 

*Allgemeine  Horn.  Zeitung,  Vol.  XXVI.,  Nos.  14,  15.  (Aus  Hahne- 
mann's Leben.) 

t"  Lesser  Writings,"  New  York,  p.  695. 


HAHNEMANN  S    OPINION    OF    ALI^OPATHY.  119' 

and  Aconite  is  the  curative  and  preservative  remedy  of  the  firsts 
and  Belladonna  of  the  second." 

Now  Schwartzenberg,  who  thus  became  a  patient  of  Hahne- 
mann, was  a  very  distinguished  general.  During  the  war  of 
1813  against  Napoleon  he  had  held  a  large  command  in  the 
great  army  of  the  Russian,  Austrian  and  Prussian  allies.  His- 
command  was  estimated  to  consist  of  200,000  men.  After  the 
three  days'  battle  of  Leipsic  he  had  entered  the  city  as  a  con- 
queror and  hero.  He  had  followed  with  the  grand  army  to 
France  at  the  head  of  three  hundred  thousand  men,  and  in  1814,. 
he  was  living  in  Paris  as  commander-in-chief  of  the  allied 
armies.  Such  was  the  man,  renowned  all  over  Europe,  who  in, 
despair  sought  Hahnemann's  medical  aid.* 

Hartmann  continues:  "Prince  Schwartzenberg  lived  on  aa 
estate,  known  as  Milchinsel,  outside  the  city.  When  Hahne- 
mann visited  him  he  always  met  the  Prince's  body  physician, 
the  Royal  and  Imperial  Counsellor,  Staff  Surgeon,  Dr.  Von  Sax, 
and  the  Royal  and  Imperial  Regimental  Surgeon,  Dr.  Maren- 
zeller.  The  disease  at  first  assumed  a  very  favorable  character^ 
which  had  never  been  the  case  under  any  previous  treatment. 
This  was  but  temporary;  his  case  soon  assumed  an  acute  form. 
From  the  first  the  case  was  an  incurable  one,  however,  and  the 
patient  died  in  an  apoplectic  attack  on  the  15th  of  October,  1820, 
after  nearly  six  mouths'  residence  in  Leipsic.  Dr.  Clarus  con- 
ducted the  post-mortem  and  published  the  result,  with  his  private 
opinion  of  Homoeopathy,  in  Huf eland'' s  Jotirnal,  Vol.  51,  part  4. 
Hahnemann  was  now  derided  on  all  sides.  Yet  he  was  so  con- 
sciously proud  of  the  knowledge  that  he  had  done  his  duty 
that,  to  show  his  respect  for  his  patient,  as  well  as  to  show  how 
little  he  cared  for  the  ridicule  of  the  people,  he  accompanied  the 
remains  of  the  Prince  to  L,eipsic  on  foot."t 

Ameke  says:;{:  "  Certainly  the  Field  Marshal  improved  under 
Hahnemann's  treatment;  he  was  able  to  go  out  for  regular- 
walks.  Dr.  Joseph  Elder  von  Sax,  and  other  Allopaths,  declared 
that  Hahnemann  neglected  to  employ  'powerful  measures,'  and 
that  he  was  responsible  for  hastening  the  Prince's  death.  Some 
time  before   the   fatal    termination    of  the   illness    Hahnemann 

*  Peters'  "Principles  and  Practice  of  Medicine,"  New  York,  1859.  p.  113- 
■\Allgein.  Horn.  Zeitung,  Vol.  XXVL,  No.  14.  (Auf  Hahnemann's  Leben.) 
j  Ameke's  "History  of  Homoeopathy,"  p.  186. 


I20  LIFE   OF    HAHNEMANN. 

visited  the  patient,  accompanied  by  Dr.  Marenzeller,  who  had 
been  sent  from  Vienna,  and  found  the  Allopaths  employed  in 
making  a  venesection.  After  that  he  never  visited  the  patient 
again,  as  Dr.  Argenti  relates.  The  report  of  the  post-mortem 
was  signed  b}^  Clarus,  Dr.  von  Sax,  Dr.  Samuel  Hahnemann  and 
Prosector  Dr.  Aug.  Carl  Bock." 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

PROSECUTION  OF  DR.  FRANZ — HAHNEMANN'S  WISH  FOR    PEACE — 
LETTER  TO  DR.   BILLIG — ACCUSATION  AGAINST    HART- 
MANN — INVITATION    TO    COETHEN — LETTER 
TO  STAFF — REASONS    FOR   LEAVING 
LEIPSIC — DR.  A.J.  HAYNEL. 

"  After  this  death  the  persecutions  were  redoubled.  Such  of 
the  pupils  of  Hahnemann  as  held  no  license  to  practice  were 
especially  exposed  to  the  bigotry.  Dr.  Franz  was  treating  a 
lady  who  was  ill  with  the  consumption,  and  she,  wishing  a 
change  of  physicians,  called  Dr.  Clarus.  He  very  violently  as- 
sailed the  treatment  of  Franz  and  proclaimed  him  responsible 
for  her  death,  although  the  case  was  incurable.  Dr.  Franz 
placed  the  matter  in  the  hands  of  a  lawyer  and  retired  from 
practice  to  his  home  at  Plauen,  where  he  was  obliged  to  remain 
for  six  months.  Although  the  charges  were  not  substantiated, 
yet  he  was  obliged  to  pay  costs. 

"Dr.  Hornburg,  on  account  of  being  a  pupil  of  Hahnemann, 
was  twice  rejected  by  the  professors;  was  continually  oppressed 
in  his  endeavors  to  practice;  underwent  a  trial  for  unlicensed 
practice;  was  sentenced  to  two  months'  imprisonment;  the  grief 
of  this  caused  him  to  fall  into  a  decline  and  he  died  soon  after 
of  consumption." 

In  1 82 1  Hahnemann  sent  to  the  authorities  of  the  State  an- 
other appeal  regarding  the  personal  dispensing  of  medicines 
entitled:  "The  Homoeopathic  Physician  is  prevented  by  no  ex- 
isting Laws  relating  to  Medicine  from  himself  Administering 
his  Medicines  to  his  Patients."*  Stapf  first  published  this  and 
*  "Lesser  Writings."     New  York. 


PROSECUTION    OP    DR.    FRANZ.  121 

the  preceding  address,  in  1829,  in  his  collection  of  the  "Lesser 
Writings  of  Hahnemann." 

In  1825,  he  published  in  the  Allgemeine  Anzeiger  still  another 
article  on  this  subject:  "How  can  Homoeopathy  be  most  Cer- 
tainly Eradicated?" 

Hahnemann  was  now  sixty-six  years  of  age  and  had  been 
practicing  medicine  for  forty-two  years;  the  report  of  his  won- 
derful cures  attracted  many  from  other  countries  to  Leipsic,  and 
all  he  wished  was  to  be  allowed  to  dispense  the  simple  medicines 
that  he  himself  made  and  to  teach  his  benign  methods.  It  was 
all  in  vain.  The  apothecaries  were  against  him,  and  he  must 
leave  the  old-time  home  where  he  had  been  a  student,  where  he 
had  lived  in  later  years,  and  where  he  had  taught  for  ten  busy 
years  the  principles  of  the  law  of  Homoeopathy. 

The  Homoeopathic  practitioners,  and  even  their  medicines,  were 
wonderfully  obnoxious  at  this  time  to  the  Allopathic  physicians 
and' the  apothecaries.  And,  much  as  at  the  present  day,  it  was 
necessary  to  protect  the  innocent,  the  guileless  public  from  inno- 
vators and  teachers  of  strange  doctrines,  and  the  task  then,  as 
now,  fell  on  the  benevolent  shoulders  of  the  dominant  school. 

In  1 85 1,  Dr.  Worthington  Hooker,  in  one  of  the  periodical 
fulminations  for  the  destruction  of  Homoeopathy  that  have  ap- 
peared like  locusts  or  cholera  at  certain  dates,  said,  in  relation  tO' 
this  opposition  of  the  physicians  and  apothecaries  to  Hahne- 
mann's dispensing  his  own  medicines:*  "It  is  strange  that  no 
one  of  his  adherents  could  be  found  willing  and  competent  to. 
act  as  his  apothecary." 

Dr.  Peters  in  his  sketch  of  Hahnemann  mentions  this  and! 
says  :t  "Hooker  very  innocently  asks  why  Hahnemann  did  not 
get  one  of  his  friends  to  act  as  his  apothecary,  not  knowing  that 
apothecaries  in  Germany  are  only  allowed  to  follow  their  art 
by  special  license;  that  only  a  certain  number  of  apothecaries^ 
are  allowed  to  each  town,  district  or  population.  A  new  one 
cannot  get  a  license  until  the  population  increases  to  the  re- 
quired mark;  that  it  is  quite  as  difficult  to  establish  a  new 
apothecary  shop  in  Germany  as  it  is  to  admit  a  new  State  intO' 
our  Union." 

*"  Homoeopathy."     Dr.  Worthington  Hooker,  New  York,  1851,  p..  12, 
t" Principles  of  Medicine,"  p.  115. 


122  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

The  following  letter,  written  to  Dr.  Billig  while  Hahnemann 
was  undecided  what  to  do,  well  explains  his  wish  for  only  some 
quiet  place  where  he  might  be  permitted  to  continue  his 
researches  in  peace  : 

"lyEiPSic,  5th  February,  1821. 
"Most  Worshipful  Obr.,  Esteemed  Friend  : 

"  By  the  public  proceedings  directed  against  me  by  the  Saxon 
medical  men,  you  will  have  learned  (I  am  sure  with  grief)  how 
bitterly  my  method  of  treatment  and  its  author  are  persecuted  in 
this  country.  This  persecution  has  now  reached  its  climax,  and 
I  should  be  doing  an  injury  to  the  beneficent  art,  and  imperiling 
my  own  life,  were  I  to  remain  longer  here  and  not  seek  protec- 
tion in  some  foreign  country. 

"Some  propositions  of  this  sort  have  been  made  to  me  from 
Prussia,  but  I  should  much  prefer  to  find  the  protection  I  desire 
for  the  few-remaining  days  I  have  to  live  (I  am  an  old  man  of 
sixty-six)  in  the  Altenburg  country.  In  a  country  that  is  so 
mildly  governed  as  Altenburg  is,  and  where,  moreover,  I  can 
still  meet  with  true  Masons,  I  think  I  may  be  most  comfortably 
•settled,  especially  as  four  and  twenty  years  ago  I  enjoyed  great 
distinction  as  physician  to  the  dear  old  Duke  Ernst,  in  Gotha 
and  Georgenthal.  I  do  not  wish  to  go  to  the  town  of  Altenburg 
itself,  to  be  in  the  way  of  you,  dearest  friend,  and  of  your  col- 
leagues. 

' '  I  only  wish  to  be  able  to  settle  in  some  country  town  or 
market  village,  where  the  post  may  facilitate  my  connection 
with  distant  parts,  and  where  I  may  not  be  annoyed  by  the  pre- 
tensions of  any  apothecary,  because,  as  you  know,  the  pure 
practice  of  this  art  can  only  employ  such  minute  weapons,  such 
'.small  doses  of  medicine,  that  no  apothecary  could  supply  them 
profitably,  and,  owing  to  the  mode  in  which  he  has  learnt  and 
always  carried  on  his  business,  he  could  not  help  viewing  the 
whole  affair  as  something  ludicrous,  and,  consequently,  turning 
the  public  and  the  patients  into  ridicule.  For  these  and  other 
reasons  it  would  be  impossible  to  derive  any  assistance  from  an 
apothecary  in  the  practice  of  Homoeopathy. 

"  I  take  this  opportunity,  my  honored  friend,  of  praying  for 
•such  a  reception  in  Jyour  country,  and  under  your  amiable  pro- 
tection, and  I  should   do   all  in  my  power  to  prove  to  you  my 


TREATMENT  OP  HARTMANN.  1 23 

gratitude  and  esteem.     I  beg  you  to  remember  me  most  kindly 
to  our  worthy  Obr.  Hofrath  Dr.  Pierer. 

' '  You  will  oblige  me  greatly  if  you  will  be  so  good  as  to  speak 
of  this  matter  to  the  President  of  Government,  Von  Trutschler,  to 
whom  I  have  also  applied. 

"In  the  meantime  accept  a  triple  kiss  from  my  esteem  and 
love,  as  from  your  true  friend  and  Obr.* 

"Dr.  S.  Hahnemann." 

Dudgeon  says:  "  The  letters  Obr.  found  in  this  letter  and 
others  written  by  Hahnemann  probably  refer  to  some  title  in  free- 
masonry." From  them,  and  the  manner  in  which  he  writes,  it 
is  likely  that  Hahnemann  was  a  Mason. 

Hartmann  mentions  his  own  treatment  at  this  time.  He  had 
some  time  previously  announced  himself  to  the  Dean  of  the 
Medical  Faculty,  Counsellor  Rosenmuller,  Professor  of  Anatomy, 
as  a  foreign  candidate  for  a  higher  degree.  The  Dean  died  soon 
after,  and  he  did  not  suppose  a  second  announcement  to  the  new 
Dean  was  necessary. 

He  says:  "I  found  myself  engaged  in  a  practice  by  no  means 
unprofitable,  and  with  youthful  presumption  and  carelessness 
did  not  suppose  that  an  obstacle  could  be  laid  in  my  way.  But 
with  all  the  caution  which  I  exercised  in  my  practice,  the  then 
second  surgeon  at  St.  Jacob's  Hospital,  Dr.  Kohlrusch,  dis- 
covered that  I  attended  one  of  his  patients,  and  lost  no  time  in 
forwarding  to  the  President  of  the  Faculty  a  packet  of  my  pow- 
ders, and  accusing  me  before  this  Court  so  bitterly  opposed  to 
all  HomcEopathists.  I  was  summoned  before  Clarus,  over- 
whelmed with  reproaches  and  threatened  with  the  severest  pun- 
ishment if  I  dared  to  practice  again  before  the  Counsellor 
ordered  my  examination." 

Hartmann  fearing  to  pass  an  examination  before  the  preju- 
diced Leipsic  Faculty,  after  some  difficulty  in  other  places, 
on  account  of  the  hostility  of  the  physicians,  finally  passed  suc- 
cessfully in  Dresden. 

Hahnemann  had  now  no  longer  a  wish  to  remain  in  the  un- 
grateful city  of  Leipsic;  in  fact,  without  the  privilege  of  practic- 
ing he  could  not  remain.  In  the  meantime  certain  of  his  friends 
and  patients,  influential  citizens,  had  addressed  a  petition  to  the 
King,  and  to  the  municipality  of  the  city,  for  justice  in  behalf 
*  Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  xiv.,  p.  164. 


124  LIFE    OF   HAHNEMANN. 

of  the  persecuted  physician.  While  this  petition  was  yet 
unanswered,  in  the  spring  of  182 1,  his  Highness,  the  Grand 
Duke  Frederick,  of  Anhalt-Coethen,  extended  to  Hahnemann 
an  invitation  to  accept  the  post  of  private  physician  to  himself, 
with  free  privileges  of  practice  according  to  the  feelings  of  his 
heart,  within  the  limits  of  the  Duchy.  Hahnemann  accepted 
with  thankfulness  this  honorable  and  advantageous  offer,  and, 
without  waiting  to  see  the  outcome  of  the  petitions  in  his 
behalf,  he  went  to  Coethen. 

Dr.  Schwenke  says  that  the  reason  why  Hahnemann  fixed 
upon  Coethen  as  his  residence,  after  the  persecutions  of  the 
jealous  physicians  and  apothecaries  had  driven  him  from  Leipsic, 
was  as  follows:* 

"  The  Ducal  Chief  Chamberlain,  von  Sternegk,  it  was  to  whom 
the  credit  must  be  awarded  of  having  first  directed  the  Duke's 
attention  to  Hahnemann.  Von  Sternegk  had  been  cured  by 
Homoeopathy  of  a  complicated  disease  that  had  defied  all 
resources  of  Allopathic  treatment,  and  he  persuaded  the  Duke, 
who  was  a  great  sufferer,  to  consult  Hahnemann,  and  try  the 
new  method  of  treatment.  This  trial  succeeded  beyond  expec- 
tation and  prepossessed  the  Duke  in  favor  of  Homoeopathy,  so 
that  at  von  Sternegk' s  suggestion  Hahnemann  requested  from 
the  Duke  permission  to  settle  in  Coethen,  which  was  readily 
granted  him." 

In  the  circumstance  in  which  Hahnemann  was  placed  this 
permission,  or  invitation,  of  the  Grand  Duke  Frederick  was  very 
opportune.  He  was  at  once  appointed  to  a  place  of  extreme 
honor  as  the  Duke's  physician  in  ordinary  or  private  physician. 
He  was  given  the  privilege  to  practice  according  to  the  dictates 
of  his  own  conscience ;  everything  that  he  considered  necessary 
to  his  new  "methods  was  granted  to  him.  In  a  word,  Coethen 
was  offered  to  him  and  to  his  sj^stem  as  a  free  city,  a  favor  never 
previously  granted  by  any  crowned  head.  With  joy  he  accepted 
this  permission,  and  left  I^eipsic  early  in  May,  1821,  never  to 
return  there  to  live.  Many  of  his  old  pupils  accompanied  him 
for  a  distance  upon  the  road  to  Coethen. 

Hartmann  saystf  "  I  was  not  with  them,  having  left  Leipsic. 
Hahnemann  took  two  of  his  pupils  with  him,  Dr.  Haynel  and 


*Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  xxxvi.,  p.  379. 
■\N.  W.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  iv.,  p.  210. 


DEPARTURE  FOR  COETHEN.  1 25 

Dr.  Mossdorf.  The  latter  afterwards  became  his  son-in-law,  but 
was  subsequently  separated  from  him;  the  cause  I  never  learned. 
Haynel,  on  the  contrary,  led  the  life  of  a  true  nomad ;  was  at 
Berlin  at  the  first  invasion  of  the  cholera;  then  in  Merseberg; 
finall)'  visited  me  in  1830,  in  I^eipsic,  where  he  provided  himself 
with  a  large  stock  of  Homoeopathic  medicines  with  the  intention 
of  going  to  North  America." 

Dr.  Hering  says:*  "Dr.  A.  J.  Haynel  died  at  Dresden, 
August  28,  1877,  92t.  81.  He  was  an  jnmate  of  Hahnemann's 
family  for  more  than  ten  years,  and  proved  a  number  of  remedies 
for  him.  About  the  year  1835  he  came  to  America,  and  resided 
first  at  Reading,  Pa.,  then  at  Philadelphia.  In  1845  he  lived  at 
New  York,  and  still  later  in  Baltimore,  from  whence  he  returned 
to  Europe  several  years  previous  to  his  death." 

Dr.  Gray  says:t  "At  Baltimore,  Dr.  Haynel,  an  original 
pupil  of  Hahnemann,  established  the  new  method  on  a  firm 
basis  as  early  as  1838." 

About  this  time  a  contemporary  wrote  as  follows  :  ' '  Dr.  Sam- 
uel Hahnemann,  the  discoverer  of  the  Homoeopathic  system,  is 
about  to  leave  Leipsic  and  to  take  up  his  residence  at  Coethen. 
His  Highness,  the  Duke  of  Anhalt-Coethen,  having  been  pleased 
to  permit  Dr.  Hahnemann  not  only  to  reside  there,  but  also  to 
prepare  and  dispense  his  medicines  without  the  interference  of 
apothecaries,  the  Board  of  Health  at  Coethen  set  a  praiseworthy 
■example  of  impartiality  and  due  regard  to  the  progress  of 
science. 

"They  did  not  consider  it  right  to  dispute  the  claim  of  the 
experienced  philosopher  to  shelter  and  protection,  nor  of  the 
renowned  chemist  and  professor  of  pharmacy  to  the  right  of  pre- 
paring and  dispensing  his  medicines;  the  more  so,  as  for  a 
period  of  twenty  years  all  apothecaries  consulted  his  '  Pharma- 
ceutical Dictionary.' 

"As  the  system  of  Homoeopathy  is  unavailing  unless  the 
medicines  be  prepared  by  the  physician  himself,  many  patients 
whose  medical  treatment  has  been  interrupted  by  the  expulsion 
of  Hahnemann  from  Leipsic  will  now  be  enabled  to  gratify 
their  feelings  and  follow  their  convictions,  and  the  present 
liberal  century  is  saved  from  the  reproach  of  having  suppressed 

*A''.  V.  Horn.  Times,  Vol.  v.,  p.  216. 

tTrans.  N.  Y.  State  Horn.  Med.  Soc,  1863,  p.  105. 


126  LIFE   OF   HAHNEMANN. 

one  of  the  most  remarkable  discoveries  that  ever  blessed  man- 
kind, of  having  consciously  destroyed  the  soothing  expectations 
of  the  suffering  world."* 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 

ACT     GRANTING     PERMISSION      TO    PRACTICE      HOMCEOPATHY     IN 

COETHEN — PERMISSION  GRANTED  DR.  MOSSDORF  TO  ACT 

AS  HAHNEMANN'S  ASSISTANT — LETTER  TO  STAPF. 

Albrecht  in  his  biography  of  Hahnemann  has  divided  his  life 
into  five  epochs:  The  Lehrjahre  or  years  of  apprenticeship,  the 
school  days,  extending  from  1755  to  1792;  the  Prufungsjahre  or 
trial-years,  the  wander-years  from  1792  to  1811  ;  the  Kampf- 
jahre  or  battle-years,  the  life  of  conflict  in  Leipsic  from  1811  to 
1821  ;  the  Meisterjahre  or  master-years,  the  quiet  life  at  Coethen 
from  1821  to  1835;  the  Glanzjahre  des  Alters  or  splendid  years 
of  old  age,  the  brilliant  life  in  Paris  and  the  peaceful  end. 

The  story  of  the  years  of  apprenticeship  to  knowledge,  of  the 
bitter  days  of  wandering  and  adversity,  has  been  told  ;  we  have 
seen  Hahnemann  surrounded  by  his  pupils  in  Leipsic,  teaching 
his  important  doctrines  to  the  world;  proving  medicines  and  pre- 
paring their  painstaking  record  for  the  Materia  Medica  Pura  ; 
we  have  seen  jealousy  and  bigotry  drive  him  forth  from  the 
great  city. 

Now,  after  these  battle-years  necessary  to  the  future  existence 
of  his  system  of  healing,  we  follow  him  to  the  calm  and  restful 
time  at  Coethen,  during  which  he  was  the  master  and  his 
students  came  from  many  parts  to  sit  at  his  feet  and  learn. 

The  little  town  of  Coethen  in  the  principality  of  Anhalt  was, 
in  Hahnemann's  time,  the  capital  of  one  of  those  small  but  ab- 
solute kingdoms  into  which  Germany  was  divided.  It  had  its 
ruler,  its  own  laws  and  customs,  and  the  Grand  Duke  Ferdinand^ 
Hahnemann's  protector,  was  supreme  in  his  own  territory. 
Hence  for  the  persecuted  old  reformer  it  became  a  veritable 
haven  of  rest,  within  whose  borders  he  and  his  tenets  were  un- 
molested. 

*Fischer's  translatiou  of  Biographisches  Denkmal.p.  45.  (Biographical 
Monument  to  the  Memory  of  Samuel  Hahnemann.  C.  Fischer,  M.  D., 
London,  1852.) 


PERMISSION  TO  PRACTICE  HOMOEOPATHY  AT  COKTHEN.      12/ 

Coethen  is  situated  upon  the  little  river  Zittau  and  is  twelve' 
miles  southwest  from  Dessau,  about  ten  miles  from  Halle,  and 
but  a  short  journey  from  lycipsic.  At  the  time  of  which  we 
write  it  contained  about  6000  inhabitants. 

Dr.  Peschier,  of  Geneva,  who  journeyed  there  upon  a 
pilgrimage  to  Hahnemann  in  1832,  thus  describes  it:*  "The 
route  from  Leipsic  to  Coethen  is  neither  very  interesting  nor 
agreeable,  though  it  is  necessary  for  the  driver  to  be  familiar 
with  it ;  my  friend  the  Baron  von  Brunnow,  who  had  set  out 
with  his  sister,  lost  his  way  in  a  cross  road  and  there  wandered 
more  than  three  hours  before  he  discovered  the  right  way. 

"The  little  village  of  Coethen  is  not  lacking  in  charms;  it  lies 
in  a  valley  through  which  flows  a  little  river,  which  gives 
freshness  and  beauty  to  the  surrounding  country.  The  streets 
are  large  and  well  laid  out ;  the  chateau  of  the  reigning  Duke, 
beyond  its  splendor,  offers  nothing  remarkable  ;  it  is  situated  in 
a  garden  open  to  the  public,  where  many  varieties  of  rare 
flowers  are  cultivated  with  great  care. 

"  The  dowager  Duchess  Julie  lives  in  a  pretty  house  in  the 
midst  of  gardens,  f  with  a  lake  in  which  there  are  swans,  and 
surrounded  by  all  the  pleasures  of  the  country.  It  is  situated 
near  the  gates  of  the  town  from  which  it  is  separated  by  a  prom- 
enade and  a  grove.  I  have  said  gates  of  the  town  because 
Coethen  was  formerl}^  a  little  fortress,  and  the  same  old  walls, 
pierced  with  gates,  still  remain. 

"The  late  Duke,  having  embraced  the  Roman  Catholic  faith, 
built  a  chapel  adjoining  his  palace  in  whicli  to  worship  accord- 
ing to  his  creed ;  in  this  there  is  a  beautiful  portal,  with 
columns." 

Rapou  fils,  also  describes  a  visit  made  in  the  same  year.  He 
says: J  "The  railroad  extending  from  L,eipsic  to  Berlin  crosses 
the  Duchy  of  Anhalt- Coethen  and  its  little  capital,  noted  for  the 
generous  hospitality  with  which  it  received  the  chief  of  the  new 
school.  It  is  four  years  since  my  father  and  myself  journeyed 
thither  in  the  basket-work  carriages  of  the  Prussian  post,  over  a 
miserable  road,  broken  and  muddy,  towards  the  modest  home  of 
Hahnemann,  which  is  to  day  the  principal  point  of  convergence 

*Bibliotheque  Homozopathique,  Vol.  i,  p.  378. 

fHer  husband,  Duke  Ferdinand,  Hahnemann's  patron,  had  died  in  1831. 

J  "Histoirede  la  doctrine  Homceopathique."     Paris.  1S47.     Vol.  ii,  p.  287. 


128  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

of  the  main  railroads  of  northern  Germany.  In  this  borough, 
peaceful  and  rural,  where  the  silver  tinkling  of  the  clock  in  the 
Ducal  chateau  wafts  itself  in  chimes  to  the  cattle  coming  from 
the  pasture,  the  ardent  reformer  had  found  that  salutary  calm 
that  he  had  lost  after  his  great  discovery. 

' '  He  lived  there,  entirely  devoted  to  his  art,  afar  from  con- 
tradictions, and  from  the  discussions  that  his  doctrines  had 
aroused  throughout  Germany.  He  was  not,  however,  idle  in 
his  isolation.  He  carried  on,  with  his  partisans,  a  very  extended 
correspondence,  answered  their  objections,  aroused  the  indiffer- 
ent, admonished  his  disciples,  and  punished  with  reprobation 
those  who  transgressed  his  precepts.  " 

The  house  in  which  Hahnemann  lived  from  1821  to  1835,  the 
time  of  his  sojourn  in  Coethen,  is  situated  in  the  Wallstrasse 
and  is  now  used  as  a  Hahnemann  museum.  It  is  of  two  stories 
and  stands  upon  the  corner  of  the  street.  Approaching  it  one 
sees  a  sloping  roof  like  the  two  sides  of  a  square;  in  the  middle 
of  each  side  of  this  roof  a  quaint  little  dormer  window  appears, 
for  all  the  world  like  a  gigantic  eyelid  half  open.  The  pave- 
ment before  the  house  is  of  large  and  square  slabs  of  stone. 

Over  the  windows  of  the  front  of  the  house  is  a  tablet  on 
which  is  inscribed  :  "Here  Samuel  Hahnemann  lived  from  182 1 
to  1835." 

In  the  rear  of  this  house,  in  Hahnemann's  time,  there  was  a 
long  and  paved  garden  shut  in  by  a  grated  door;  at  the  end 
was  an  arbor  covered  with  vines. 

We  now  reach  a  very  interesting  period  in  the  varied  life  of 
the  venerable  reformer.  Previous  to  this  he  had  never  known 
freedom  from  persecution. 

His  discoveries  had  been  hailed  with  ridicule  by  men  who 
were  infinitely  beneath  him  in  education  and  ability.  He  had 
been  by  such  men  persecuted  and  forced  to  make  his  life  one 
of  wandering  and  poverty. 

He  had  patiently  sought  to  induce  his  fellow-physicians  to 
try  the  new  system  he  had  discovered.  He  had  been  such  a 
prey  to  the  pettiness  of  bigotry  that  his  heart  had  become 
hardened.  Here  in  this  haven  of  quietness  he  was  destined  to 
pass  many  years,  only  leaving  this  to  enter  the  last  epoch  of  his 
long  and  tempest-tossed  life  in  the  luxurious,  happy  years  at 
Paris. 


PERMISSION  TO  PRACTICE  HOMCEOPATHY  IN  COETHEN.      I  29 

Hahnemann  lived  a  quiet  and  studious  life  at  Coethen. 
Freed  from  the  incessant  irritation  of  the  persecutions  of  his 
enemies,  with  nothing  to  distract  his  mind,  allowed  perfect 
freedom  of  opinion  and  action,  he  now  devoted  himself  to  his  im- 
portant studies.  For  some  time  he  remained  secluded  from  the 
world,  seldom  going  out  of  his  house  except  to  visit  the  Grand 
Duke  professionally.  His  other  patients  were  obliged  to  go  to 
him.  He  passed  much  of  his  time  in  the  arbor  in  the  garden 
at  the  back  of  the  house.  On  every  pleasant  day  he  took  a 
•drive  in  his  carriage  into  the  neighboring  country.  It  is  related 
of  him  that  one  day  a  disciple  was  visiting  him  in  this  garden,  and 
■seeing  its  small  and  narrow  space,  in  which  at  the  time  he  took  all 
his  exercise,  said:  "How  small  this  much  talked  of  garden  of 
yours  is,  Hofrath. "  Hahnemann  responded:  "Yes,  it  is  nar- 
row, but,"  pointing  to  the  heavens,  "of  infinite  height." 

Among  the  State  documents  preserved  in  the  Archives  of  the 
Duchy  of  Anhalt  is  the  following:*  "i^cts  relating  to  the  per- 
mission graciousl}^  awarded  to  Dr.  Hahnemann,  of  Leipsic,  to 
settle  in  this  capital,  and  as  a  Homoeopathic  physician  to  dis- 
pense his  own  medicines. 

"We  hereby  announce  to  the  Commissioners  of  the  State  Ad- 
ministration that  we  have  graciously  accorded  to  Dr.  Hahne- 
mann, upon  his  humble  request,  permission  to  settle  here  as  a 
practicing  physician,  and  to  prepare  the  remedies  required  for 
"his  treatment,  and  hence  the  Sections  15,  17  and  18,  of  the  Medi- 
cal Regulations  of  1811,  have  no  application  to  him. 

"In  other  respects  Dr.  Hahnemann  is  subject  to  all  the  rules 
and  regulations  of  State  and  police,  and  to  all  the  regulations 
■of  our  Medical  Direction,  and  our  Commissioners  of  the  State 
Administration  will  arrange  all  that  is  necessary,  especially  in 
regard  to  the  Medical  Direction. 

"  Coethen,  April  12,  182 1.  " 

Hahnemann  was  created  Hofrath  on  May  13,  1822.  The 
title  Hofrath  signifies  Councillor  to  the  Court.  In  a  letter 
"to  Dr.  Croserio,  dated  at  Coethen,  February  6,  1835,  he  signs 
his  name  Samuel  Hahnemann,  counseiller  aulique.  This  is  a 
French  rendering  of  the  same  title.     The  term   Hofrath  is   an 

*  British  Journal  of  Homoeopathy,  Vol.  xxxvi.,  p.  260.  IvUtze's  "Todten- 
feier,"p.  139. 


130  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

honorary  title  given  by  princes  to  persons  whom  they  wish  tO' 
especially  distinguish. 

On  June  i  the  following  decree  was  promulgated:  "  Hofrath 
Dr.  Hahnemann,  having  practiced  the  Homoeopathic  method 
here  for  a  year,  and  no  case  of  death  or  accident  from 
this  method  having  come  to  my  knowledge,  I  having,  on  the 
contrary,  learned  that  many  patients  have  been  relieved  and 
cured,  I  am  confirmed  that  if  Homoeopathy  is  not  more  ad- 
vantageous than  Allopathy,  it  can  at  all  events  be  considered  as- 
on  a  par  with  the  latter.  I  therefore  consider  it  my  duty  as  a 
ruler  to  maintain  it  for  suffering  humanity,  especially  for  my 
subjects,  and  as  none  of  the  physicians  of  the  Dukedom  has  yet 
adopted  the  Homoeopathic  system,  and  owing  to  the  great  age 
of  Hofrath  Dr.  Hahnemann,  it  is  to  be  feared  that  his  strength 
may  not  last  very  much  longer,  I  have  resolved  to  allow  one  of 
his  most  distinguished  disciples,  Dr.  Theodore  Mossdorf,  a  native 
of  Dresden,  to  settle  in  this  country  as  a  practicing  Homoeopathic 
physician,  and  to  prepare  and  dispense  the  remedies  required  in 
his  treatment.  On  condition  that  Dr.  Mossdorf  is  willing  to 
render  all  assistance  to  Hofrath  Dr.  Hahnemann,  he  will  not  only 
receive  a  patent  of  naturalization,  but  also  be  admitted  as  my: 
subject, 

"Dr.  Mossdorf  will  be  exempt  from  the  usual  examination,, 
seeing  that  Homoeopathy  is  founded  on  quite  different  principles 
from  Allopath3^  and  hence  it  would  be  improper  to  subject  a  dis- 
ciple of  Homoeopathy  to  an  Allopathic  examination,  just  as  it 
would  be  improper  to  ascertain  the  suitability  of  a  Protestant 
candidate  by  making  him  be  examined  by  a  Catholic  bishop. 
In  other  respects  it  is  of  course  understood  that  Dr.  Mossdorf 
has  to  submit  to  all  other  State  and  police  laws  and  regulations, 
and  has  to  obey  the  orders  of  my  Medical  Directors,  from  which,, 
however,  like  all  my  subjects,  he  can  appeal  to  me.  The  Com- 
missioner of  the  State  administration  has  to  do  all  that  is  re- 
quired for  carrying  my  resolution  into  effect,  and  to  make  it 
known  to  all  whom  it  may  concern." 

Dr.  Mossdorf  afterwards  married  Hahnemann's  youngest 
daughter  Louise.  He  did  not  remain  long  at  Coethen,  as  he 
and  Hahnemann  could  not  agree.  He  received  from  the  Duke 
a  yearly  salary  of  sixty  thalers  for  medical  attendance  on  the 
Duke's  servants. 


PERMISSION  TO  PRACTICE  HOMCEOPATHY  IN  COETHEN.      131 

After  Hahnemann  liad  been  for  six  months  quietly  and  happily 
living  in  Coethen,  the  petition  to  the  Ivcipsic  authorities 
in  regard  to  the  self  dispensing  of  medicines  was 
answered  favorably.  On  November  30,  1821,  a  royal  decree  was 
promulgated,  granting,  to  the  Homoeopathic  physician,  under 
certain  conditions,  the  right  to  dispense.  This  was  a  formal 
recognition  of  the  new  method,  and  although  life,  now  rendered 
possible  in  Leipsic,  offered  many  advantages,  Hahnemann  pre- 
ferred the  exercise  of  the  more  perfect  liberty  in  the  practice  of 
his  art  that  had  been  so  generously  afforded  him  by  the  kind- 
hearted  Duke  at  Coethen. 

The  lycipsic  patients  of  Hahnemann,  of  whom  there  were 
many,  consulted  him  still  at  Coethen,  sending  often  by  express 
for  medicines  to  that  town. 

He  soon  became  useful  to  his  ducal  protector,  as  is  evidenced 
by  the  following  letter  dated  March  9,  1824:*  "Our  most 
serene  Duke,  who  was  suffering  from  a  severe  nervous 
attack,  is  now  out  of  danger,  thanks  to  the  successful  exer- 
tions of  Dr.  Hahnemann,  well  known  for  his  new  method 
of  curing.  When  the  discoverer  of  Homoeopathy  took 
shelter  in  a  country  whose  sovereign  generously  supports  every 
attempt  for  the  improvement  of  science,  he  scarcely  foresaw  that 
he  was  destined  to  save  the  life  of  his  illustrious  patron.  Nor 
did  our  most  gracious  Duke  imagine  that  such  would  be  the 
case  when  he  extended  his  protection  to  a  noble  and  oppressed 
cause  for  the  purpose  of  delivering  it  to  the  impartial  judgment 
of  posterity.  Feelings  of  mutual  gratitude  cemented  their 
union." 

Duke  Ferdinand  and  his  wife,  Julie,  were  always  on  the  most 
cordial  terms  with  their  illustrious  physician.  The  following 
letters  written  when  he  had  been  but  two  years  at  Coethen  will 
illustrate  this.f 

"  Coethen^  Ja7iuary  2g,  1823. 
^^  My  Dear  Hofrath  Hahneinann: 

"While  expressing  to  you  my  thanks  for  your  medical  help 
this  year,  and  for  the  past  two  years,  and  assuring  you  of  my 
complete  satisfaction,  I  wish  you  to  accept  the  enclosed  trifle  as 

*Fischer's  "Biographical  Monument,"  p.  46. 

t  "Leben  und  Wirken,"  p.  III.  Ameke's  "History  of  Homoeopathy," 
P-  155- 


132  LIFE   OF   HAHNEMANN, 

a  slight  recompense  for  your  medicines  and  for  your  services. 
May  heaven  preserve  you  in  good  health  for  many  years  to 
the  benefit  of  suffering  humanity. 

"Ferdinand,  Duke. 

"  My  best  thanks,  my  dear  Hofrath,  for  your  kind  wishes  for 
my  birthday.  I  owe  to  your  exertions  one  of  the  pleasantest 
gifts  on  entering  on  a  new  year,  improved  health.  I  hope  to 
preserve  this  to  your  praise  and  credit. 

"  With  sincere  pleasure, 

"Yours  very  affectionately, 

"Julie,  Duchess  of  Anhalt. " 

This  kindness  on  the  part  of  his  princely  patrons  was  con- 
tinued during  Hahnemann's  whole  sojourn  at  Coethen. 

Four  years  after  Hahnemann  had  removed  to  Coethen  he  wrote 
the  following  letter  to  his  friend.  Dr.  Stapf.  It  throws  some  light 
upon  his  feelings  during  his  persecutions  in  Leipsic,  and  his 
reasons  for  settling  in  Coethen. 

"Coethen,  July  i6,  1825. 
* '  Highly  Esteemed  Doctor: 

"  To  many  of  my  disciples  it  must  have  seemed  very  suspicious 
when,  four  years  ago,  after  receiving  a  similar  summons  from 
Dresden,  I  suddenly  left  the  city  and  State  and  emigrated  with 
all  my  family  to  this  little  principality  at  great  expense  and 
loss;  but  I  knew  well  the  inflexibility  of  the  judges  at  whose 
ears  stood  my  medical  enemies.  Remonstrances  would  avail 
naught,  whatever  the  family  doctor  desires  would  take  the  form 
of  a  legal  decision. 

"But  where  is  the  prohibition  of  dispensing  one's  own  reme- 
dies that  applies  to  Homoeopathy?  To  the  apothecary  is,  by 
law,  accorded  the  right  that  no  one  but  himself  shall  dispense 
any  medicament.  But  in  no  law  relating  to  medical  affairs  is  a 
simple  remedy  understood  by  the  words  medicament  and  medi- 
cine, but  always  and  without  exception  a  mixture  of  medicines 
to  be  compounded  by  the  apothecary  from  a  prescription,  and 
prescriptions,  in  all  the  laws  relating  to  medical  affairs,  always 
imply  the  mingling  of  several  drugs  in  a  mixture. 

"Therefore  the  candidate  for  a  degree  must  show  in  his  ex- 
amination that  he  has  attended  lectures  on  the  art  of  prescribing 
and  produce  the  certificates  of  the  professor,  or  else  he  will  not 
get  the  doctor's  degree;  for  as  Senner,  in  the  preface  to  his  'Art 


PERMISSION  TO  PRACTICE  HOMCEOPATHY  IN  COETHEN.      1 33 

of  Prescribing,'  expressly  declares:  'A  simple  remedy  ordered  to 
be  taken  is  not  a  prescription,  that  must  contain  several  ingredi- 
ents.' These  mixtures  and  these  prescriptions  no  one  except  the 
apothecary  is  permitted  to  make  up,  his  privilege  is  only  in  re- 
spect to  these.  What  medicinal  authority  can  deny  this  ?  Who 
can  hold  a  contrary  opinion  ? 

"  A  simple  substance  in  a  vehicle  is  not  a  medicine  in  the  sense 
of  the  law  relating  to  medical  affairs,  otherwise  the  apothecary 
would  be  practicing  medicine  on  his  own  account  when  he,  with- 
out let  or  hindrance,  sells  to  every  customer  anise,  sugar,  pepper- 
Inint  drops  and  the  like.  He  is  not  allowed  to  give,  on  his  own 
account,  medicines,  medicaments,  mixtures  of  drugs. 

"  Hence  it  follows  that  the  apothecary's  privilege  refers  only 
to  the  making  up  of  the  mixtures  of  drugs,  but  not  to  the  giving 
of  the  simple  substances  of  the  Homoeopath  in  a  vehicle.  If 
you  can  make  any  use  of  these  remarks  without  mentioning  my 
name,  it  will  afford  pleasure  to 

"  Yours  truly, 

"Sam.  Hahnemann."* 

And  again  in  another  letter  to  Stapf,  written  October  17  of  the 
same  year,  he  saystf  "The  honest  opinion  expressed  by  the 
eminent  lawyer  Von  Konen  on  my  essay  gave  me  pleasure. 
There  was  a  point  I  did  not  allude  to  (and  so  he  could  not 
know  the  truth  of  the  matter),  and  that  was  why  it  was  ab- 
solutely necessary  that  Homoeopaths  should  dispense  their 
medicines.  It  is,  however,  connected  with  the  circumstance 
that  the  Apothecaries'  Guild  has  recently  represented  to  the 
authorities  that  through  their  institution  the  safety  of  the  public 
is  best  provided  for,  because  thus  only  can  a  real  control  be 
exercised. 

"Naturally  the  authorities  desire  above  all  things  to  secure 
such  safety,  and  it  redounds  to  their  honor  that  they  put  this 
object  before  any  other  consideration.  But  control  does  not 
affect  the  apothecary  in  the  least.  The  dishonest  apothecary 
will  take  good  care  that  at  the  annual  or  semi-annual  inspection 
he  will  show  the  medical  inspector  fresh  samples  of  the  most  ex- 
pensive current  articles,  or  small  quantities  of  these  things.  But 
nobody  sees  what  he  has  put  in,  or  allowed  to  be  put  in,  the  Al- 

*Hom.  IVorld,  Vol.  xxiv,  p.  247. 
■\Hoin.  World,  Vol.  xxiv,  p.  306. 


134  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

lopathic  mixtures  of  drugs,  and  the  cleverest  doctor  cannot  tell 
what  is  or  is  not  in  the  made  up  compound  powders,  electuaries, 
mixtures,  etc.  Still  less  can  a  Homoeopathic  physician  allow  an 
apothecary  to  put  a  minute  globule  impregnated  with  an  ex- 
tremely diluted  medicine  into  a  powder  of  milk  sugar. 

"In  his  (the  physician's)  absence  he  cannot  know  for  certain 
whether  the  apothecary  has  or  has  not  done  it,  or  if  he  has  put 
in  a  globule  moistened  with  some  other  medicine. 

"He  can  never  know  this,  or  by  subsequent  examination  of 
the  powder  convince  himself  on  the  subject,  for  the  small 
globule  cannot  be  found  in  the  milk  sugar  powder,  or  if  found, 
it  is  impossible  to  tell  if  it  contains  the  medicine  prescribed. 
Nay,  more;  if  the  physician  has  put  it  in  himself,  and  has  for- 
gotten what  it  is,  and  has  made  no  note  of  what  medicine  he 
put  in,  he  cannot  afterwards  find  out  what  is  in  it  by  examination 
of  the  powder. 

"He  must  make  up  the  powder  himself,  and  make  a  note  of 
it  in  writing.  He  cannot,  without  being  quite  uncertain  about 
his  treatment,  allow  it  to  be  prepared  by  another.  I  request 
you  to  communicate  this  to  Mr.  Von  Konen  with  my  respectful 
compliments,  as  it  is  the  simple  truth.  The  quintillionth  or 
decillionth  of  a  grain  of  any  medicine  can  never  be  pronounced 
dangerous  by  the  apothecary,  or  be  considered  dangerous  to  life 
by  the  authorities. 

"The  Homoeopathic  physician's  peculiar  advantage  consists 
in  this,  that  he  gives  the  right  medicine  in  the  smallest  possible 
dose.  No  control  is  required  here.  In  Allopathic  practice  the 
apothecary's  intervention  is  almost  indispensable,  for  how  can 
the  practitioner  give  the  time  required  to  make  the  mixture 
himself  or  see  that  the  apothecary  makes  it?" 

This  law,  by  means  of  which  Hahnemann  was  prevented  from 
dispensing  his  medicines,  and  which  was  the  cause  of  his  leav- 
ing Leipsic,  was  an  obsolete  statute  raked  up  for  the  purpose  of 
suppressing  Homoeopathy.  To,  for  a  moment,  suppose  that 
Hahnemann  was  not  the  superior  of  the  apothecaries  and  the 
doctors  in  the  matter  of  preparing  or  dispensing  medicines  is  to 
forget  that  for  twenty  years  his  Apothecary-Lexicon  had  been  a 
standard  work  upon  that  very  subject,  in  the  hands  of  the  same 
apothecaries.  It  was  jealousy,  nothing  else,  that  banished 
Hahnemann  from  Leipsic. 


LITERARY    WORK.  1 35 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 


I^ITKRARY    WORK — EDITIONS    OP    THE     "ORGANON" — FOUNDING 
OP  THE  ARCHIV — PREFACES  TO  THE  '  'MATERIA  MEDIC  A  PUR  A." 

Hahnemann  now  devoted  himself  to  literary  work,  especially 
to  the  elaboration  of  that  great  monument  to  his  genius,  "  The 
'Chronic  Diseases.  "  With  the  exception  of  a  number  of  pamph- 
lets and  short  articles,  this  is  the  only  original  work  that  he 
published  after  this  time.  While  living  in  Coethen  he  published 
the  3d,  4th  and  5th  editions  of  the  ' '  Organon ' '  and  the  2d  and 
3d  editions  of  the  ''  Materia  Medica  Pura.  " 

As  has  been  mentioned,  the  first  edition  of  the  "Organon" 
was  published  in  1810,  while  Hahnemann  was  living  at  Torgau. 
It  is  not  as  large  as  the  later  editions,  nor  does  it  contain  as 
-many  notes. 

Hahnemann  first  mentions  the  word  Homoeopathy  in  the 
"Organon;"  it  is  composed  of  two  words  from  the  Greek — 
omoios,  similar,  and  pathos,  disease.  He  also  used  the  word 
Allopath  to  designate  the  members  of  the  dominant  school  of 
medicine. 

The  growth  of  the  doctrines  of  Homoeopathy  can  very  plainly 
be  traced  in  the  mind  of  its  discoverer  in  the  different  editions. 
In  them  all  the  arguments  are  consistent  and  any  anomalies 
are  easily  explainable.  The  third  edition  was  issued  in  1824; 
the  fourth   in    1829;  the  fifth  in  1833,  all  by  Arnold  of  Dresden. 

In  1824  Baron  von  Brunnow  translated  it  into  French.  His 
edition  was  published  in  Dresden.  Of  it  Hahnemann  says  in  the 
preface  to  the  third  edition:*  "  A  great  help  to  the  spread  of 
the  good  cause  in  foreign  lands  is  won  by  the  good  French 
translation  of  the  last  edition,  recently  brought  out  at  great 
sacrifice  by  that  genuine  philanthropist,  my  learned  friend 
Baron  von  Brunnow.  " 

But  five  editions  of  the  "  Organon  "  were  issued  during  the 
lifetime  of  the  master.  He  left  the  notes  for  a  sixth  edition 
at  his  death,  which  as  yet  has  never  been  published. 

*Dudgeon's  translation  of  the  "Organon,  "  1893. 


136  LIFE   OF    HAHNEMANN. 

Dr.  Arthur  lyUtze,  in  1865,  issued  an  unauthorized  edition 
that  was  repudiated  by  the  profession.  An  account  of  this  and 
of  the  unpublished  "  Organon"  is  given  in  the  chapter  devoted 
to  Madame  Hahnemann. 

In  the  Allgemeine  Anzeiger  der  Deutschm,  1819,  Hahnemann 
published  a  short  article  on  "Uncharitableness  Towards 
Suicides."  He  mentions  the  epidemic  prevalence  of  suicide, 
maintains  that  it  is  a  form  of  insanity  and  says:*  "This  most 
unnatural  of  all  human  purposes,  this  disorder  of  the  mind  that 
renders  them  weary  of  life,  might  always  be  with  certainty 
cured  if  the  medicinal  powers  of  pure  ^t?/^  for  the  cure  of  this 
sad  condition  were  known.  The  smallest  dose  of  pulverized 
gold  attenuated  to  the  billionth  degree,  or  the  smallest  part 
of  a  drop  of  an  equally  diluted  solution  of  pure  gold,  which  may 
be  mixed  in  his  drink  without  his  knowledge,  immediately  and 
permanently  removes  this  fearful  state  of  the  (body  and)  mind, 
and  the  unfortunate  being  is  saved." 

The  Homoeopathic  practitioner  knows  that  this  advice  is  as. 
true  at  the  present  day  as  when  Hahnemann  gave  it. 

In  1 82 1  Dr.  Ernst  Stapf  established  at  Leipsic  a  journal  de- 
voted to  the  spread  of  Homoeopathy,  which  was  issued  three 
times  a  year.  It  was  called  ''Archiv  fur  die  ho7noopaihische 
Heilkunsf*  (Archives  for  Homoeopathic  Healing).  This  was 
the  first  magazine  ever  published  in  the  interests  of  Homoeo- 
pathy. And  now  the  followers  of  the  Master  had  an  organ  in 
which  to  present  their  truths  to  the  world.  On  the  reverse  of 
the  title  of  each  number,  and  facing  the  index,  is  the  following 
quotation  from  Shakespeare's  "Romeo  and  Juliet,"  act  i, 
scene  2: 

"Tut,  mau,  oue  fire  burns  out  another's  burning; 

One  pain  is  lessened  by  another's  anguish; 
Turn  giddy  and  be  help  by  backward  turning; 

One  desperate  grief  cures  with  another's  languish. 
Take  thou  some  new  infection  to  the  eye, 

And  the  rank  poison  of  the  old  will  die.  " 

The  initial  number  of  this  journal  was  issued  in  September, 
1821.  The  first  article  was  from  the  pen  of  Moritz  MuUer  on 
"The  Critical  Examination  of  Homoeopathy."  Stapf  published 
an  essay  upon  Homoeopathy,  some  cases,  some    aphorisms,  a  re- 

t  "Lesser  Writings,"  New  York,  p.  695. 


LITERARY    WORK.  1 37 

view  of  the  sixth  volume  of  the  "Materia  Medica  Pura,"  and,  in 
connection  with  Gross,  certain  provings  of  Platina. 

At  this  time,  besides  the  immediate  pupils — the  members  of 
the  first  Provers'  Union — there  were  a  number  of  recent  converts 
to  Homoeopathy  who  were  in  independent  practice  of  that 
system. 

Among  them  Gross  was  at  Juterbogk;  Moritz  MuUer  and  Carl 
Haubold  were  settled  in  Leipsic,  as  well  as  the  veterinary 
■surgeon  Wilhelm  Lux,  who  was  to  astonish  the  world  with  the 
remarkable  nature  of  Isopathy. 

Drs.  C.  F.  Trinks  and  Paul  Wolf  were  at  Dresden.  As  early 
as  1 8 19  Dr.  Gossner  had  practiced  Homoeopathy  in  Oberholla- 
brun  in  Lower  Austria  and  Dr.  Mussek  in  Seefeld,  a  neighbor- 
ing town.  In  Prague  Dr.  Marenzeller,  military  staff  surgeon 
and  attending  physician  to  his  Imperial  Highness,  the  Archduke 
John,  was  becoming  interested  in  the  new  system. 

In  Vienna,  Veith  was  testing  its  virtues.  Dr.  Adam,  who 
had  met  Hahnemann,  was  introducing  it  into  Russia.  In  1821 
the  Austrian  Baron,  Francis  Koller,  had  carried  the  "Organon" 
to  Naples,  where  a  translation  had  been  made  under  the  aus- 
pices of  the  Royal  Academy,  and  where,  in  1822,  Dr.  George 
Necker,  a  pupil  of  Hahnemann,  also  settled  and  soon  opened  a 
•dispensary  for  the  poor. 

In  the  meantime,  in  Coethen,  Hahnemann  was  taking  walks 
in  his  little  garden,  long  drives  into  the  surrounding  country, 
writing  letters  to  his  many  friends  and  followers,  pondering 
over  his  new  doctrines,  and  preparing  for  the  press  the  second 
edition  of  the  "Materia  Medica  Pura." 

It  does  not  seem  that  Hahnemann  took  any  particular  pains 
to  assist  his  pupils  before  he  left  Leipsic  or  after  he  settled  at 
'Coethen.  Kleinert  says:  *  "That  Homceopathy  assumed  de- 
fined shape  and  developed  strength  to  live  and  to  overcome  ob- 
stacles is  much  more  the  result  of  their  (the  students  and  dis- 
ciples) labors  than  that  of  Hahnemann.  There  is  no  doubt  at 
all  that  at  the  beginning  of  the  second  decade  of  this  century 
the  tenacity  of  Hahnemann  was  commencing  to  yield  to  ad- 
vancing years  and  that  he  had  long  ceased  to  enjoy  the  thickest 
of  the  battle.     With  his  then  strong  inclination  to  dictate,  and 

*  "Geschichte  der  Homoopathie,"  p.  107.  Med.  Counsellor,  vol.  xi, 
p.  270. 


138  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

his  more  or  less  unwise  tendency  to  isolate  himself,  there 
would  have  resulted  a  standstill  or  a  retrograde  movement 
which  would  have  lasted  for  at  least  one  generation  if  the  tact, 
zeal  and  ability  of  these  men  had  not  made  themselves  felt 
ever5'where. 

"In  spite  of  every  species  of  adversity,  not  unfrequently  pro- 
ceeding from  the  master  himself,  they  stood  like  beacon-lights  of 
fidelity,  and,  when  it  became  necessary,  distinguished  between 
the  precious  doctrine  and  its  prophet,  between  the  jewel  itself 
and  the  setting. 

"It  is  impossible  to  find  a  single  statement  in  print,  or  an 
authenticated  verbal  statement,  to  show  that  Hahnemann,  who  was. 
now  blessed  with  a  most  profitable  practice,  ever  spent  upon  his 
followers  more  than  the  spirit  of  his  doctrine,  although  he  well 
knew  their  great  perplexities  and  fully  understood  their 
academic  afflictions  increased  in  proportion  to  their  faithfulness 
to  him.  He  left  to  their  own  fate  two  of  his  favorite  disciples 
when  they  were  on  trial  for  illegally  practicing,  although  in 
this  case  neither  his  position,  living  nor  fortune,  but  only  hi& 
honor,  was  involved.  He  well  knew  the  schemes,  plans,  and 
doings  of  his  opponents.  We  find  his  defense  prepared  by 
his  pupils,  in  most  cases  they  weie  not  even  indorsed  or 
seconded  by  him,  but,  on  the  contrary,  were  received  with  con- 
tempt, suspicions  and  ridicule;  he  never  took  a  hand  in  them!" 

It  would  seem  that  Kleinert,  and  also  Hartmann,  thought 
that  Hahnemann  should  have  acted  in  a  much  different  manner 
towards  them.  That  his  one  aim  was  first  and  always  the  ad- 
vancement of  Homceopath}^  no  one  who  will  carefully  read  his 
writings  can  deny.  And  that  by  allowing  his  followers  to  fight 
their  battles  for  themselves  he  made  them  more  bold,  attracted 
the  attention  of  the  world  more  fully  to  the  new  system,  and 
caused  it  to  more  quickly   spread,   is  now   seen    to  be  true. 

And,  too,  he  naturally  thought  that  his  pupils  were  the  proper 
persons  to  continue  the  fight  that  he  had  maintained  singly 
for  so  many  years. 

Hahnemann  took  a  great  interest  in  the  Arc/iiv  der  Heilkinist 

from  the  first.     In  a  letter  to  Stapf,   written   in   1826,   he  says:* 

"  I  still  continue  to  read  works  on  other  scientific   subjects,  but 

nothing  medical  except   your  Archiv.     I   have   not  read   even 

*Hom.  World,  vol.  xxiv,  p.  361. 


LITERARY   WORK.  1 39 

Huf eland' s  Jou7'7ial  for  years,  and,  in  my  present  isolation  and 
severance  from  well-informed  physicians,  I  do  not  know  where 
to  get  the  loan  of  the  number  of  Huf  eland  s  Journal  you  refer  me 
to.  I  am  delighted  to  receive  the  important  information  that 
the  leader  of  all  writers  of  complicated  prescriptions,  and  of  the 
most  material  pathology  of  the  ordinary  stamp,  has  again  be- 
stowed a  friendly  glance  on  his  antipode,  who  has  in  his  writ- 
ings indicated  him  as  the  champion  of  antiquated  medical  non- 
sense, and  mentioned  him  alone  by  name  (in  the  "Sources  of  the 
ordinary  Materia  Medica"  at  the  beginning  of  the  third  volume 
of  the  "Materia  Medica  Pura"). 

"  You  would  confer  a  favor  on  me  if,  when  opportunity  offers, 
you  would  make  a  short  extract  from   his    favorable  judgment. 

"I  am  pleased  with  Gross's  refutation  of  the  Anti-Organon. 
Gross,  in  my  opinion,  is  growing  more  valiant.  My  only  re- 
gret is  that  he  has  spent  so  much  time  and  thought  over  that 
piece  of  sophistry. 

"Believe  me,  all  this  senseless  fighting  against  the  manifest 
truth  only  exhausts  the  poor  creatures,  and  does  not  stay  its 
progress,  and  we  would  do  well  to  allow  such  trashy,  spiteful 
lucubrations  to  pass  unnoticed;  they  will  without  aid  sink  into 
the  abyss  of  oblivion  and  into  their  merited  nothingness. 

"I  fear  more  the  empirical  contaminations  of  that  society  of 
half- Homoeopaths  about  which  you  write,  which  they  had  suffi- 
cient prudence  not  to  invite  me  to  join,  but  of  whose  doings  I 
have  been  pretty  correctly  informed  by  oral  communi- 
cations. I  fear  that  inaccuracy  and  rashness  will  pre- 
side over  their  deliberations,  and  I  would  earnestly 
beg  of  you  to  do  what  you  can  to  check  and  re- 
strain them.  For  should  our  art  once  lose  its  attribute 
of  the  most  conscientious  exactness,  which  must  happen  if  the 
dii  minorum  gentium  seek  to  push  themselves  into  notoriety  by 
their  so-called  observations,  then  I  tremble  for  the, raising  of  our 
art  out  of  the  dust;  then  we  shall  lose  all  certainty,  which  is  of 
great  importance  to  us. 

"Therefore,  I  beg  you  will  keep  out  of  your  Archiv  2X\  super- 
ficial observations  of  pretended  successful  treatment.  Admit 
only  truthful,  accurate,  careful  records  of  cases  from  the  practice 
of  accredited  Homoeopaths;  these  must  be  models  of  good 
Homoeopathic  art.     In  spite  of  all   precautions,  some   of  these 


I40  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

recorded  cases  of  chronic  maladies  will  incur  suspicion  that  they 
may  not  be  permanent,  when  the  eyes  of  medical  men  shall  be 
opened  on  the  subject  of  the  cure  of  chronic  diseases  by  my 
book,  which,  after  ten  years'  labor,  is  not  yet  ready,  but  is 
gradually  approaching  completion. 

' '  Yours  very  truly, 

"Sam.  Hahnemann. 
^^Coethen,  March  ij,  1826  ^ 

And  again:*  "I  thank  you  for  the  third  number  of  the  eighth 
volume  of  your  y^r^/zzV.  It  has  pleased  me  very  much,  and  I 
can  find  nothing  censurable  in  it.  We  must  endeavor  to  main- 
tain its  old  value,  so  that  it  shall  remain  unsurpassed  in  the  es- 
timation of  the  medical  public.  Gross,  Rummel,  and  also 
Aegidi  and  Hartmann  have  acquitted  themselves  well.  I  will 
soon  make  a  search  to  see  if  I  have  any  presentable  provings  of 
medicines." 

In  1825  Hahnemann  published  in  the  Allgemeine  Anzeiger 
an  answer  to  an  article  that  had  been  published  in  the  same 
journal,  entitled:  "  Information  for  the  Truth  Seeker  in  No. 
165  of  the  Allgemeine  Anzeiger  der  Deutschen.  "  This  essay  was 
published  in  1827  as  an  introduction  to  Volume  VI.  of  the  second 
edition  of  the  "Materia  Medica  Pura"  under  the  title:  f  "  How 
can  Small  Doses  of  such  very  Attenuated  Medicines  as  Homoe- 
opathy Employs  still  possess  Great  Power?" 

In  a  preface  to  the  fourth  volume  of  the  second  edition  of  the 
"  Materia  Medica  Pura,  "  1825,  was  published  an  article:  "  Eine 
Erinnerung,  "  to  which  Dudgeon  gives  the  title:  "Contrast 
of  the  Old  and  New  Systems  of  Medicine."  In  this  Hahne- 
mann speaks  of  the  fallacy  of  prescribing  according  to  a  noso- 
logical and  capricious  name  for  disease,  and  the  ease  of  pre- 
scribing from  a  prescription  pocket-book.  He  says:  "But 
how  did  the  prescriptions  for  these  names  of  diseases  originate  ? 
Were  they  communicated  by  some  divine  revelation?  My  dear 
sir,  they  are  either  formulas  prescribed  by  some  celebrated 
practitioner  for  some  case  or  other  of  disease  to  which  he  has 
arbitrarily  given  this  nosological  name,  which  formulas  consist 
of  a  variety  of  ingredients  known  to  him  no  doubt  by  name, 
that  came  into  his  head  and  were  put  by    him   into    an    elegant 

*Hotn.  World,  vol.  xxv,  p.  113. 
t  "Lesser  Writings,"  New  York. 


i 


LITERARY   WORK.  14.i 

form  b}"  the  aid  of  that  important  art  which  is  called  the  ar^  of 
presa-ibing,  whereby  the  requirements  of  chemical  skill  and 
pharmaceutical  observance  were  attended  to,  if  not  the  welfare 
of  the  patient;  one  or  several  receipts  of  this  kind  for  the  given 
case,  under  the  use  of  which  the  patient  at  least  did  not  die, 
but,  thanks  to  heaven  and  his  good  constitution! — gradually  re- 
covered. 

"After  three  and  twenty  centuries  of  such  criminal  mode  of 
procedure,  now  that  the  whole  human  race  seems  to  be  awaking 
in  order  powerfully  to  vindicate  its  rights,  shall  not  the  day  be- 
gin to  dawn  for  the  deliverance  of  suffering  humanity  which  has 
hitherto  been  racked  with  diseases,  and  in  addition  tortured 
with  medicines  administered  without  rhyme  or  reason,  and 
without  limit  as  to  number  and  quantity,  for  phantoms  of  dis- 
eases, in  conformity  with  the  wildest  notions  of  physicians 
proud  of  the  antiquity  of  their  sect  ? 

-  "Shall  the  pernicious  jugglery  of  routine  treatment  still    con- 
tinue to  exist  ? 

"Shall  the  entreaty  of  the  patient  to  listen  to  the  account  of 
his  sufferings,  vainly  resound  through  the  air  unheard  by  his 
brethren  of  mankind,  without  exciting  the  helpful  attention  of 
the  human  heart?" 

Hahnemann  then  shows  the  simpler,  more  certain  method  of 
healing  in  accordance  with  the  Homoeopathic  system,  and  in 
conclusion  says:  "Do  old  antiquated  untruths  become  anything 
better — do  they  become  truths — by  reason  of  their  hoary  an- 
tiquity ?  Is  not  truth  eternal,  though  itmay  have  been  discovered 
only  an  hour  ago?  Does  the  novelty  of  its  discovery  render  it 
an  untruth  ?  Was  there  ever  a  discovery  or  a  truth  that  was  not 
at  first  novel?" 

In  the  same  volume  (IV,  second  edition)  is  an  article  called 
"The  Medical  Observer."  It  shows  the  importance  of  the  most 
careful  observations  of  the  patient  on  the  part  of  the  physician, 
with  the  proper  means  to  be  adopted  to  become  a  careful  ob- 
server of  disease.  * 

*  "Lesser  Writings,"  New  York. 


142  LIFE   OF   HAHNEMANN. 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 

HAHNEMANN'S    GREAT    AND    VARIED    KNOWLEDGE — REIMARUS 

FRAGMENTS — PAPER   ON   CHEMISTRY — ADVICE   TO 

STAFF — DEATH    OF    CASPARI. 

Hahnemann  was  not  a  man  of  one  idea;  he  was  more  or  less 
conversant  with  many  branches  of  knowledge,  and  was  con- 
sulted upon  many  subjects  besides  that  of  medicine.  He  took 
a  great  interest  in  astronomy,  and  with  his  friend,  the  Court 
Chancellor  Schwabe,  who  had  an  observatory  on  his  own 
premises,  Hahnemann  was  accustomed  to  hold  long  conversa- 
tions. In  his  library  among  its  other  treasures  was  a  large 
collection  of  maps,  and  he  was  well  versed  in  geographical 
studies,  of  which  he  was  very  fond.  He  also  was  a  naturalist; 
he  was  a  student  of  ancient  history.  In  addition  to  these  pur- 
suits, and  to  his  large  practice,  he  maintained  a  very  extensive 
correspondence  with  his  disciples  and  friends.  And,  too,  there 
was  seldom  a  day  passed  when  he  did  not  entertain  and  instruct 
some  disciple  who  had  journeyed  from  a  distance  to  learn  from 
the  Master.  At  this  time  many  who  were  weary  of  the  old  ways 
of  medicine,  went  to  this  prophet  of  a  new  dispensation  to  be 
taught. 

Let  us  from  his  own  letters  form  some  idea  of  the  multiple 
pleasures  and  pursuits  of  this  old  man,  then  over  seventy  years 
of  age. 

Writing  to  his  Fidus  Achates,  Stapf,  in  1826,  he  says:*  "  The 
German  translation  from  the  Chinese  of  the  writings  of  Con- 
fucius, by  Schott,  has  given  me  great  pleasure.  I  have  en- 
deavored in  vain  to  procure  the  French  translation  by  Deguignes. 
Now  the  first  part  of  it  has  been  published  by  Renger  in  Halle, 
and  I  will  soon  get  it.  There  we  read  Divine  wisdom  without 
miracle-fables  and  without  superstition.  It  is  a  remarkable  sign 
of  the  times  that  Confucius  can  now  be  read  by  us.  I  myself 
will  soon  embrace,  in  the  domain  of  blessed  spirits,  that  bene- 
factor of  mankind  who  led  us  b}'  the  straight  path  to  wisdom 
and  to  God  .six  centuries  and  a  half  before  the  arch -visionary." 

*Hom.  World,  Vol.  xxiv,  p.  363. 


HAHNEMANN  S  GREAT  AND  VARIED  KNOWLEDGE.     I43 

Again,  to  Dr.  Stapf  in  1827  he  says:*  "The  work  on  ento- 
imology  you  kindly  sent  me  is  a  beautiful  book,  and  I  think  it 
would  be  difficult  to  give  a  better  explanation  of  the  mysterious, 
ilight-like  progression  of  spiders  horizontally  and  upwards  in  the 
air.  If  this  single  branch  of  natural  history  (entomology)  does 
not  show  an  infallible  revelation  of  God's  wisdom,  power,  and 
goodness,  in  short,  everything  that  should  induce  a  well-dis- 
posed man  to  do  His  will  as  conscience  dictates;  if  true  religion 
is  not  to  be  learned  from  it,  then  I  am  spiritually  blind. 

"Now  about  Wild's  book.  I  beg  him  to  inquire  about  the 
price,  in  order  that  I  may  settle  the  business  with  all  speed.  It 
is  without  doubt  a  hitherto  unknown  fragment  of  the  illustrious 
Reimarus.  Nothing  of  it  is  known  to  us  except  the  middle  part 
■describing  the  passage  of  Moses  through  the  Red  Sea.  The  Old 
Testament  is  justly  estimated  there. 

"  What  has  become  of  the  Fragments  which  we  are  told  were 
to  have  been  published  in  181 7?  I  beg  Mr.  Wild  to  get  them 
for  me,  even  though  I  have  to  pay  a  good  price  for  them. 

"O  God  !  that  truthfulness  and  impartiality  should  be  so 
seldom  met  with,  and  that  they  should  have  to  hide  themselves 
in  the  presence  of  the  thoughtless  swarm  of  worldlings  who  dis- 
play their  animal  character  to  their  last  breath,  and  yet  try  to 
■sneak  into  everlasting  happiness  by  a  wrong  road. 

"Try  and  obtain  for  me,  through  Wild,  all  the  Fragments, 
whatever  they  may  cost." 

Again,  in  September,  1827  :f  "The  books  on  entomology  are 
•excellent.  I  thank  you  for  sending  them  to  me.  But  they  do 
not  solve  the  riddle  respecting  the  spiders.  To  j  udge  from  my 
own  experiments  they  appear  to  possess  a  power  still  unknown 
to  us  to  project  themselves  forward  in  the  air — not  on  shot-out 
threads !  In  my  experiments  I  made  this  impossible,  and  I  saw 
one.  suspended  by  its  thread  from  my  finger,  first  hover  in  the 
air  in  a  horizontal  position,  then  dart  obliquely  upwards,  where 
it  disappeared  from  my  sight." 

The  study  of  his  old  favorite,  chemistry,  was  also  continued. | 
In  a  letter  to  Stapf,  of  February  20,  1829,  he  says:  "The 
enclosed   paper  is  not  suited   for  the  Archiv  or  for  any  other 

*Hom.  World,  Vol.  xxiv,  p.  365. 
'\Hom..  World,  Vol.  xxiv.,  p.  492. 
XHom.  World,  Vol.  xxiv.,  p.  503. 


144  LIFE   OF    HAHNEMANN. 

medical  periodical,  as  it  is  merely  chemical.  Moreover,  it  is  not 
only  anonymous  (no  one  is  to  know  that  it  is  written  by  me  ;  on 
account  of  the  prejudice  that  the  doctors  and,  along  with  them, 
the  chemists,  have  for  me  and  my  doctrine,  the  chemical  jour- 
nalist would  throw  it  aside),  but  it  is  also  a  chemical  heresy.  1 
beg  therefore  that  you  would  get  this  little  essay  copied  at  my 
expense,  so  that  it  may  not  be  lost,  supposing  the  chemical 
journalist  should  be  so  uncivil  as  to  refuse  to  let  it  appear  in 
his  periodical,  and  should  fail  to  send  it  back  to  me,  but  drop  it 
into  his  waste  basket  or  burn  it  for  its  heretical  doctrines." 

The  essay  was  probably  upon  the  chemical  properties  or  prepa- 
ration oi  Causticum,  called  in  the  "Fragmenta"  Acris  tindtira. 

The  disposal  of  this  paper  on  chemistrj^  gave  Hahnemann 
considerable  trouble.  In  another  letter  dated  July  14,  1829,  he 
says,  presumably  of  this  same  paper :'^  "Von  Bock  has  just 
undertaken  to  travel  to  Halle  in  order  to  have  it  out  with  the 
professor  of  chemistry.  This  person  has  made  no  concealment 
of  his  resolution  not  to  accept  my  article,  as  its  views  are 
opposed  to  the  traditional  teaching.  That  is  just  what  I  feared  ! 
What  annoyance,  what  opposition  to  improvements  must  we  not 
expect  from  the  orthodox  blockheads  !  But  Von  Bock  pressed 
him  so  hard  that  he  became  ashamed  of  himself,  and  has  given 
his  word  to  get  it  printed  at  once ;  and  he  promised  to  send  Von 
Bock  a  copy.  If  only  he  will  keep  his  word,  which  time  will 
soon  show.  I  cannot  publish  the  fourth  part  of  my  book,  which 
contains  Caiistiaim,  until  this  article  appears." 

And  again  on  August  18,  1829,  he  says:t  "Perhaps  you  have 
reason  to  be  angry  with  Colonel  von  Bock.  I  know  nothing 
about  it.  At  all  events  he  did  me  a  great  service  in  traveling  at 
his  own  expense  from  here  to  Halle  to  see  Professor  Schweickert 
and  Schweickert-Seidel,  and  when  they  scornfully  refused  to 
print  my  article,  pressed  them  so  hard  that  at  length  they  had 
to  promise  to  print  it  immediately  and  to  send  him  a  copy  tO' 
Brunswick,  paste  restante,  which  they  and  the  publishers  did, 
with  letters  containing  the  condition  that  he  should  pay  for  the 
cost  of  printing  (3  thalers)  to  the  bookseller  Vieweg  in  Bruns- 
wick,   and  send  to  them  in  Halle  the   receipt,   otherwise  the 

*  Horn.  World,  Vol.  xxv.,  p.  21. 

■\ Horn.  World,  Vol.  xxv.,  p.  23.  Annals  Brit.  Horn.  Med.  Society,  Vol. 
iii.,  p.  161. 


HAHNEMANN  S    GREAT    AND    VARIED    KNOWLEDGE.  I45 

article  could  not  be  inserted   in  the  Jahrbuch  der  Physik  und 
Chemie,  and  so  come  before  the  public. 

"I  will  leave  you  to  judge  of  this  behavior,  as  also  of  the 
preface  these  Halle  people  have  prefixed  to  the  little  article,  and 
for  which,  consequently,  von  Bock  had  also  to  pay.  They 
seem,  in  the  preface  to  regard  my  article  as  an  offense  which 
requires  to  be  apologized  for,  and  with  diplomatic  punctilious- 
ness, deny  their  responsibility  for  the  printing  of  it;  just  as  if 
my  article  contained  verbal  inaccuracies  which  should  not  be 
laid  to  the  charge  of  the  editors.  What  gross  insults  and 
calumnies! 

"I  send  the  article  to  you  now,  but  beg  you  to  return  it  when 
you  have  the  opportunity.  But  I  fear  they  have  pocketed  the 
Colonel's  three  thalers  and  have  not  had  the  grace  to  insert  the 
article  in  their  periodical,  whereby  the  whol&  object  of  it  will  be 
frustrated . 

"I  therefore  beg  of  you  as  soon  as  Mr.  Remler  or  you  receive 
the  number  of  this  periodical  with  the  appended  article,  to  let 
me  know  immediately  by  letter,  in  order  that  I  may  make 
arrangements  for  the  printing  of  the  fourth  part  of  the  Chronic 
Diseases,  but  I  will  not  touch  a  pen  before  this  is  done.  Good 
God!  how  tiresome  and  difficult  and  how  beset  with  hin- 
drances is  the  work  of  bringing  the  truth  before  the  world,  and 
of  conquering  prejudice!  If  the  good  did  not  itself  reward  the 
doers  by  approbation  from  above  and  from  the  depths  of  the  left 
breast,  then  it  must  assuredly  remain  undone.  *  *  *  i  beg 
of  you  to  keep  it  secret  that  I  am  the  author  of  the  Halle  article^ 
for  if  it  is  known,  sentence  of  death  would  be  immediately  pro- 
nounced against  it,  and  no  one  would  put  it  to  the  proof." 

In  1828  he  requests  Stapf  to:*  "Ask  Wild  if  he  can  procure 
for  you  the  ^/^  edition  of  Lessing's  "Contributions  to  Literature 
and  Art,"  without  hinting  that  the  principal  Fragments  are  con- 
tained in  it.     I  will  willingly  pay  for  it." 

And  in  another  letter  also  of  1828  he  says  to  Stapf :t  "I  am 
sorry  that  you  should  have  so  much  trouble  in  procuring  the 
Fragments.  Precisely  that  it  is  withheld  from  the  view  of  man- 
kind whence  truth  might  beam  into  their  eyes,  and  might  divert 

*Hom.  World,  Vol.  xxiv.,  p.  497. 

^Hom.  World,  Vol.  xxiv.,  p.  494.  Aunals  Brit.  Horn.  Society,  Vol.  ii.j, 
p.  149. 


146  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

their  vision  to  themselves  and  to  the  grand  universe  in  whose 
constant  presence  they  would  be  obliged  to  be  perfectly  good, 
for  naught  can  deliver  them  from  the  hell  of  their  conscience 
when,  in  the  omnipresence  of  their  supreme  Benefactor,  they 
forget  the  purpose  of  their  being,  and  prefer  the  satisfaction  of 
their  animal  lusts  to  His  approbation. 

"  There  cannot  possibly  be  anything  in  reru77i  natura  which 
-can  make  the  immoral  happy  (blessed).  That  is  self-contradict- 
•ory,  and  woe  to  the  seducers  who  delude  the  immoral  by  hold- 
ing out  the  assured  prospect  of  attaining  perfect  felicity;  they 
thereby  only  increase  the  number  of  human  devils — they  bring 
unspeakable,  incalculable  misery  on  mankind.  The  all-good 
Deity  who  animates  the  infinite  universe,  lives  also  in  us,  and, 
for  our  highest,  inestimable  dowry,  gave  us  reason  and  a  spark 
of  holiness  in  our  conscience — out  of  the  fullness  of  His  own 
morality — which  we  only  need  to  keep  kindled  by  constant 
watchfulness  over  our  actions,  in  order  that  it  may  glow  through 
our  whole  being,  and  thus  be  visible  in  all  our  transactions,  that 
pure  reason  may  with  inexorable  severity  hold  in  subjugation 
■our  animal  nature,  so  that  the  end  of  our  existence  here  below 
may  be  profitably  fulfilled,  for  which  purpose  the  Deitj'  has  en- 
dowed us  with  sufficient  strength. 

"  If  you  have  an  opportunity  of  informing  dear  Dr.  Hering 
how  highly  I  esteem  him,  please  do  so.  He  seems  to  be  an  ex- 
cellent young  man." 

All  the  letters  of  this  period  written  by  Hahnemann  show  that 
despite  his  age  he  kept  himself  fully  in  touch  with  everything 
that  was  happening  in  the  world  of  science  and  medicine.  Dr. 
Stapf  was  his  constant  correspondent  and  confidant. 

The  following  letter  to  Stapf  is  of  great  interest  as  illustrat- 
ing this:* 

"  CoETHEN,  March  24,   1828. 
' '  Dear  Colleague  : 

"I  thank  you  for  sending  me  the  Notizcn  (a  charming  paper) 
which  I  now  return.  The  observations  upon  the  movements  of 
spiders  through  the  air  are  not  only  the  best  I  have  ever  read  on 
the  subject,  but  they  agree  perfectly  with  my  own  observations. 
He  has,  however,  only  made  them  on  the  very  small  species  of 
spiders,  which  he  calls  yEronaiitica,   but  I   myself  have  done 

*Idem.,  Vol.  xxiv.,  p.  498.     Anuals  Brit.  Horn.  Society,  Vol.  ii.,  p.  153. 


HAHNEMANN  S  GREAT  AND  VARIED  KNOWLEDGE.     I47 

SO  on  the  very  much  larger  kind,  A.  Diadema.  Great  are  the 
natural  wonderful  works  of  the  Lord  of  creation,  immeasurable 
His  wisdon?,  power,  and  goodness  ! 

"I  hope,  too,  you  will  succeed  in  obtaining  at  Mohrenzoll's 
public  sale  of  books  the  "  Reimarus  Fragments,"  which  are  in- 
corruptible by  superstition.* 

"  I  thank  you  also  for  Caspari's  book,  and  with  your  leave  I 
will  keep  it  for  a  short  time,  as  also  Rau's  book  which  I  have 
from  you.  May  I  keep  it  a  little  longer?  Caspari's  Opusculuvi 
Posthimium,  Beweis,  which  Baumgartner  has  sent  me,  will  have 
pleased  you.     It  is  a  thoroughly  good  book  of  instruction   for 

"the  laity  as  to  the  great  advantage  of  Homoeopathy  over  Allo- 
pathy. He  seems  in  it  to  wish  to  withdraw  his  previous  in- 
jurious observations  about  me.  I  had  long  ago  forgiven  him  for 
those.  But  it  would  not  be  amiss  to  give  an  obituary  notice  of 
him  in  the  Archiv,  and  to  raise  a  sort  of  appreciative  memorial 
to  him,  whereby  we  will  do  honor  to  ourselves.  But  this  I  will 
leave  entirely  to  you,  and  do  not  wish  to  dictate. 

"  It  seems  to  me  that  in  Leipsic  the  Homoeopathic  world  are 
at   loggerheads  among   themselves,    and   are  being  ruined   by 

■cabals — evil  passions  destroy  what,  were  it  united  by  the  beau- 

-tiful  art,  should  prosper  and  bear  good  fruit — 

"  '  The  seed  of  good  grows  out  of  the  heart. ^ — Haller.'' 

"  The  first  number  of  the  seventh  volume,  for  which  I  thank 

'you,  is  worthy  of  all  honor.     What  Sch t'sf  article  wants  in 

solidity  he  makes  up  for  by  his  candor  and  honesty,  and  his 
■confessions  (he  was  for  many  years  previously  a  zealous  Allo- 
path), weigh  heavily  in  the  scale  of  Homoeopathy.  He  per- 
ceives the  small  value  of  Allopathy  better  than  many  old 
.proselytes. 

*The  Reimarus  mentioned  in  a  previous  letter  was  a  distinguished  Ger- 
•man  philologist  and  philosopher  who  had  been  a  professor  at  Hamburg 
from  1727  to  1765,  the  time  of  his  death.  The  "Fragmeuta"  which  Hahne- 
mann mentions,  and  which  he  wishes  to  obtain,  were  called  "  Wolfenbut- 
"telsche  Fragmenta  eines  ungenannteu."  They  were  published  anony- 
mously by  L,essing  in  1774  and  were  thought  to  be  by  him;  but  were  really 
written  by  Reimarus.  They  consisted  of  a  manifesto  against  the  historical 
basis  of  Christianity  and  by  their  publication  Lessing  incurred  the  enmity 
of  the  church.  Hahnemann's  desire  to  see  them  shows  hor^  interested  he 
^was,  although  an  old  and  very  bus}'  man,  in  all  sorts  of  knowledge. 
fDr.  Schweikert. 


I4»  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

"It  is  to  confer  too  much  honor  on  such  muddle-heads  as- 
Anton  Frolig  &  Co.  to  condescend  to  refute  their  silly  rubbish 
set  forth  in  incomprehensible  phraseology.  I  doubt  if  it  were 
not  better  to  pass  over  in  silence  such  wretched  stuff.  It  is  so 
unintelligible  and  so  unimportant  that  without  that  it  would 
sink  into  deserved  oblivion  and  be  forgotten.  The  best  of  it  is 
where  the  rascals  confess  (p.  142)  that  '  Homoeopathy  has 
spread  to  an  unaccountable  degree.'  This  confession  is  worth  a 
great  deal.  We  have  no  need  to  feel  any  further  anxiety  about 
the  progress  of  the  dear  child  in  the  wide  world.  The  work  has 
already  been  done  for  its  proper  outfit,  and  those  brave  men, 
Stapf,  Gross,  and  some  others,  have  helped  to  give  the  good, 
child  a  sound  and  useful  education,  which  will  not  fail  to  be  ac- 
knowledged by  our  posterity. 

"I  have  now  had  leisure  to  read  your  A rc/i/v  with  great  at- 
tention, and  can  accord  to  you  both  the  highest  praise.  You. 
have  rendered  great  service  to  our  beneficent  art. 

"But  now  endeavor  to  put  your  health  (and  that  of  your  dear 
wife)  into  a  better  state.  The  extra  medical  serviceable  for  this- 
purpose  which  I  can  advise  you  is  the  following:  Not  to  under- 
take work  beyond  your  physical  powers,  nor  seek  to  get  through 
it  too  quickly.  It  is  for  your  advantage  to  combine  the  two- 
dicta:  Expendc  quid  valeant  humeri,  quid  ferre  reaisent,  and 
festifia  le7ite.  In  this  way  you  will  accomplish  your  object 
better.  Also  anger  and  grief  must  be  expelled  from  the  bosom 
of  a  wise  man,  he  must  not  allow  them  to  enter,  cequani  memento- 
rebus  in  asperis  sej'vare  vientum-morittire.  The  wise  man  first 
provides  for  his  own  well-being  so  that  he  may  be  better  able  to- 
contribute  to  that  of  others. 

"As  regards  medical  matters,  the  first  thing  to  be  attended  to- 
with  regard  to  your  dreadful  cough  is,  does  Sulphur  suit  your 
condition?  If  so,  then,  if  for  some  time  you  have  not  taken 
any,  I  would  advise  you  to  take  a  small  globule  charged  with 
Tincture  of  sulphur  {Spiritus  vini  sulphuratiis)  and  allow  it  to- 
act  for  at  least  thirty  days,  this  is  to  be  followed  by  the  alter- 
nate use  of  Phosphorus  \  and  Sepia  \  (whichever  is  most  suit- 
able to  be  taken  first),  which  is  the  best  treatment  for  such  a, 
psoric  cough. 

"To  be  sure  you  have  not  got  the  second  part  of  my  book,  but: 
I   shall  soon  have  the  proof  sheets  of  both  remedies,  which  I 


HAHNEMANN  S    GREAT    AND   VARIED    KNOWLEDGE.  1 49 

will  send  you,  but  only  for  a  short  time,  as  I  often  require  them 
for  ray  own  use.     You  will  get  rid  of  your  cough  in  this  way. 

"  If  what  you  write  me  about  Austria  is  true,  then  I  must  say 
that  Marenzeller  is  just  the  man  for  the  situation.  His  extreme 
boldness  and  self-confidence  are  just  what  is  needed,  as  also  his 
indefatigable  zeal,  his  iron  endurance,  and,  when  occasion 
demands,  roughness  and  determination  to  administer  a  good  box 
■on  the  ear  to  anyone  who  comes  across  his  path.  All  this  sort 
of  thing  is,  I  repeat,  required  in  such  a  nest  of  crazy  allopaths  as 
Vienna  is,  to  bring  into  being  and  to  conduct  such  an  insti- 
tution.* 

"He  will  certainly  not  carry  out  the  treatment  with  that 
•extreme  and  requisite  care  which  I  exercise  in  selecting  the 
medicines,  but  it  is,  at  all  events,  a  commencement. 

"The  acute  outbreaks  of  psora  such  as  the  facial  erysipelas  of 
your  dear  wife,  the  acute  isolated  (not  epidemic  or  sporadic) 
illnesses,  pulmonary  inflammations,  and  other  similar  inflamma- 
tory forms,  are  no  doubt  true  explosions  and  outbursts  of  latent 
psora;  but  for  these  acute  conditions  the  slowly  acting  anti- 
psorics  are  not  suitable,  they  require  the  other  suitable  non- 
antipsoric  medicines  for  their  cure  in  the  meanwhile,  after  which 
the  psora  generally  soon  returns  to  its  latent  state,  and  after  its 
•eruption  Vesuvius  only  continues  to  smoke  a  little. 
"  Yours  very  truly, 

' '  Samuel  Hahnemann.  ' ' 

Dr.  Dudgeon,  who  translated  the  above  letter,  says  in  regard 
to  Dr.  Caspari,  in  a  noteif  "  Caspari  was  actively  engaged  in 
practice  and  in  literary  works  in  Leipsic  when,  in  the  beginning 
•of  the  year  1828,  he  was  attacked  with  smallpox,  which  was 
then  prevailing  epidemically  in  that  part  of  Germany.  The 
attack  was  attended  by  delirium,  and  though  carefully  nursed 
by  attached  friends  and  colleagues,  he  contrived  to  get  hold  of  a 
loaded  gun  which  no  one  knew  was  in  the  room,  with  which  he 
shot  himself  dead  on  February  15th.  Hahnemann  seems  always 
to  have  disliked  Caspari,  probably  because  in  the  first  work  he 
wrote  after  his  conversion  to  Homoeopathy  he  blamed  Hahne- 
mann for  having  separated  himself  so  completely  from  the  old 

*  Trial  of  Homoeopathy,  by  command  of  the  Emperor,  in  the  hospital, 
April,  1828.  See  "Horn.  League  Tract,  No.  11."  Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol. 
xii.,  p.  320. 

^ Horn.  World,  Vol.  xxiv.,  p.  497. 


150  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

school,  and  set  himself  to  try  to  amalgamate  the  two  schools.. 
Caspar!  afterwards  saw  that  this  amalgamation  was  impossible, 
and  in  his  later  works  appears  as  a  zealous  and  faithful  follower 
of  Hahnemann.  But  Hahnemann  could  apparent!}^  not  forget 
or  forgive  the  opposition  to  his  views  contained  in  the  earlier- 
work." 

In  a  former  letter  Hahnemann  alludes  to  the  death  as  follows:-. 
"Though  Caspari  behaved  in  a  very  hostile  manner  to  me,  that 
is  very  sad  about  him." 

Thus  from  the  years  1827  to  1830  we  find  this  man  who  had 
lived  his  three  score  years  and  ten  devoting  himself  not  only  to- 
his  great  work  on  the  chronicity  of  disease,  to  watching  care- 
fully the  growth  of  his  favorite  doctrines,  to  encouraging  his. 
followers,  but  also  taking  an  interest  in  all  the  new  books,  and. 
doings  of  the  medical  men. 

Think  of  an  old  man  of  seventy  five  years  of  age  interesting 
himself  in  the  truth  about  the  passage  of  the  Red  Sea,  the  habits 
of  spiders,  and  in  preparing  new  books!  In  the  history  of  the 
world  they  who  have  done  this  at  an  advanced  age  are  the 
world's  great  men,  always.  Here  was  no  sere  and  yellow  leaf, 
surely. 

And,  too,  there  was  the  home  life,  the  evenings  in  which  he 
went  into  the  parlor  in  intervals  of  his  work  and  listened,  while- 
his  good  and  faithful  wife  played  upon  the  ancient  harpischord 
in  order  to  soothe  the  busy  mind  of  the  old  Reformer. 


CHAPTER  XXX. 

TOTAL    DEMOLITION  OF  HOMCEOPATHY  BY  THE  ALLOPATHIC  PHY- 
SICIANS— HAHNEMANN'S    ANSWERS. 

During  all  this  time,  from  the  appearance  of  the  "Organon"' 
in  1810  to  the  celebration  of  the  Jubilee  of  Graduation,  in  1829,. 
a  great  many  authors  of  the  Allopathic  school  had  been  busy  in 
demolishing  this  new  doctrine  of  Homoeopathy,  and  in  writing 
Hahnemann  down  a  fraud. 

After  Hecker  had  sought  in  a  scurrilous  and  undignified 
review  to  destroy  the  truths  in  the  "Organon;"  when  other  more- 
temperate  pamphleteers  had  followed  him;  after  Kranzfelder  had 


DEMOLITION    OF    HOMCEOPATHY.  15I 

written  his  "Symbola;"  after  the  apothecaries  of  I^eipsic  had 
discussed  in  their  domestic  circles  and  in  the  beer  shops  of  their 
native  town  the  question  of  Hahnemann  being  allowed  to  dis- 
pense his  own  medicines;  when  Meissner  anonymously  wrote  the 
"Works  of  Darkness  in  Homoeopathy;"  when  Prof.  Sachs  of 
Konigsberg  had  compared  Hahnemann  to  the  devil;  when 
Keiser  had  confidently  prophesied  for  his  system  but  an  ephem- 
eral existence;  when  Steiglitz  dubbed  it  a  "monstrous  sys- 
tem;" when  Heinroth,  the  editor  of  the  Anti-Organon,  a  paper 
expressly  established  to  destroy  this  "great  humbug,"  had 
already  "  accompanied  it  to  its  death-bed;"  when  Simon,  in  the 
"Anti-Homoeopathic  Archives,"  called  Hahnemann  "the  same 
unreliable  ignoramus;"  and  Elias  had  condemned  the  whole 
system,  and  had  spoken  of  it  as  a  most  "useless  thing;" 
when  the  entire  oligarchy  of  the  Allopathic  school  had  arisen 
to  defend  the  universal  habit  of  bleeding  and  salivation,  both  of 
which  little  pastimes  Hahnemann  had  denounced;  when  Fischer, 
of  Dresden,  had  arrayed  this  "monstrous  theory  of  Homoeopathy 
at  the  judgment-seat  of  common-sense;"  when  Anonyma, 
despicable  and  snake-like,  had  everywhere  ventured  her  venom;-, 
when  the  inquisitors  of  the  public  press  were  preventing  the 
articles  of  the  Homoeopathic  physician  from  appearing  in  print; 
when  Kovats  in  Pesth,  called  Homoeopathy  "a  system  of 
juggling  and  of  deception,  quackery,  foolish  bungling,  an  occu- 
pation for  idle  cobblers,"  illustrating  himself  by  a  most  ridicu- 
lous mythological  fable  about  Hercules  and  the  ubiquitous 
serpent;  when  Wetzler  had  already  written  of  "Homoeopathy  at 
its  last  gasp;"  when  Bernstein,  in  Warsaw,  had  promised  its. 
downfall;  and  Fischer  had  explained  at  length  the  reasons  why 
it  could  not  possibly  exist  in  Berlin,  France  and  England;  when 
Sachs  had  settled  the  momentous  question  by  declaring- 
"  Homoeopathy  has  never  appeared  and  does  not  exist;"  when 
Steiglitz,  the  physician  to  the  King  of  Hanover,  advised  the 
members  of  the  dominant  school  of  medicine  to  "  wait  beside 
the  open  grave  of  Homoeopathy,  as  the  corpse  would  soon  ap- 
pear;" when  another  noble  and  scientific  person  advised  that 
Homoeopaths  be  burned  as  witches;  when  Puchelt,  Jorg,  Groh, 
Sprengel,  Widerkind,  Mulisch,  Stachelwroth  and  Schmidt,  and 
hosts  of  others  were  overwhelming  Germany  with  polemical 
pamphlets,  journal-articles,  and  books,  against  poor  old  Hahne- 


152  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

mann  and  his  terrible  doctrine;*  behold  what  Hahnemann,  the 
old  physician  and  philosopher,  looking  out  upon  his  enemies 
with  eyes  of  three  score  years  and  ten,  who  was  a  physician 
before  his  villifiers  were  born,  and  who  had  forgotten  much 
taore  than  the  most  of  them  had  ever  learned,  behold  what  he 
said  in  a  letter  written  to  Stapf,  from  his  refuge  at  peaceful 
Coethen,  on  September  i,  1825:! 

"Do  not  be  uneasy  that  such  a  quantity  of  big  guns  are  at 
present  being  discharged  at  us;  they  never  hit  the  mark;  the}' 
fall  as  light  as  feathers,  and  if  we  are  true  to  ourselves  they  can 
do  no  harm  to  us  nor  injure  the  good  cause  in  the  slightest,  for 
what  is  good  remains  good. 

"All  this  scribbling  is  forgotten  in  six  or  twelve  months. 
The  Homoeopath  tosses  it  contemptuously  aside  after  reading  it, 
and  feels  only  pity  for  the  blinded  zealots.  The  Allopaths 
derive  comfort  from  it  in  vain;  their  position  is  not  improved  by 
it;  and  the  public  don't  read  it  because  they  do  not  understand 
the  incomprehensible  stuff;  they  only  understand  the  abusive 
expressions,  which  are  no  refutation. 

"  I  do  not  know  why  we  should  fret  or  get  angry  about  it. 
What  is  true  cannot  be  betrayed  into  untruth,  even  should  a 
privy  councillor  or  an  illustrious  old  professor  write  against  it. 
*  *  *  I  laugh  at  it  all.  In  a  short  time  it  will  all  be  for- 
gotten, and  the  progress  of  our  cause  is  not  checked.  All  the 
numerous  opposition  writings  are  merely  the  last  shots  of  the 
enemy  into  the  air  before  the  ship  sinks  to  the  bottom." 

In  another  letter  of  the  same  year  he  says:]:  "The  tissue  of 
theoretical  subtleties  contained  in  Heinroth's  "Anti-Organon  " 
(thank  God  I  do  not  read  such  rubbish)  does  little  harm;  the 
readers  will  not  understand  it  and  will  pass  it  by.  But  it  can- 
not be  easily  refuted,  for  the  person  who  undertakes  this  task 
must  first  make  the  nonsense  comprehensible  to  his  reader 
before  he  can  refute  it,  and  that  is  not  worth  the  trouble. 

"You  are  too  much  afraid  of  these  libelous  publications. 
The  enemy  is  merel}^  firing  off  in  the  air  his  last  ammunition, 
and  the  truth  remains  unharmed,  and  gains  over  more  accept- 


*  For  titles  of  these  books  see  Kleinert's  "  Geschichte  der  Homoopathie, " 
p.  108.     Trans,  in  Med.  Counsellor,  Vol.  xi.,  p.  272. 

■\Hom.  World,  Vol.  xxiv.,  p.  249.  "Annals  Brit.  Horn.  Society,"  Vol.  i., 
p.  492.     J  The  same,  p.  252. 


DEMOLITION    OF    HOMCEOPATHV.  1 53 

ance  from  people  whose  minds  are  unprejudiced.  And  these  are 
the  onl}'  persons  of  any  consequence  to  us.  The  truth  which  is 
so  opposed  to  the  old  rubbish  could  not  be  stated  without  excit- 
ing a  violent  reaction.  Thej^  are  quite  cognizant  of  the  exist 
ence  of  the  well  laid  mine  which  will  shatter  their  whole  old 
edifice,  and  the}'^  are  naturally  beside  themselves  with  rage. 
Their  angry  snorting  and  impotent  gnashing  of  teeth  can  be 
perceived  far  and  near,  but  it  will  not  help  them.  I  remain 
quite  well  amid  it  all." 

In  another  lette.^  to  Dr.  Stapf  he  says: 
'  'Esteemed  Doctor  : 

•'Do  you  really  believe  these  wretched  fellows  do  any  harm  to 
the  good  cause  ?  You  are  mistaken.  Their  performances  are 
so  bad,  and  bear  their  own  condemnation  on  their  face.  So  I 
have  written  Dr.  Gross  to  request  him  to  prevent  any  Homoeo- 
path taking  the  trouble  to  refute  or  answer  them.  Still  it 
would  not  be  amiss  to  say  a  few  words  to  the  public  about 
them.  I  wish  you  would  transcribe  what  I  have  written  on 
the  enclosed  leaf  and  send  it  to  the  editor  of  the  Ayizeiger  for 
insertion. 

"This  would,  I  know,  be  agreeable  to  the  editor,  who  has 
more  than  a  dozen  such  hostile  articles  against  the  good  cause 
on  his  hands  and  does  not  know  how  to  refuse  them.  But  at 
m);'  recommendation  he  would  reject  the  most  of  them. 

"  I  do  not  feel  annoyed  at  the  rubbish.  It  has  gone  to  such 
lengths  that  it  must  now  come  to  an  end.  They  scream  them- 
selves hoarse  and  lose  their  powers  of  speech.  The  reading 
public  knows  how  to  estimate  their  screaming,  and  despises  the 
rascals  who  among  their  neighbors  pose  as  angels  of  light,  as 
friends  of  mankind,  and  as  gentle  lambs;  but  show  by  such  in- 
vectives that  they  are  raging  wolves,  and  they  must  inevitably 
sink  low  in  the  estimation  of  their  neighbors. 

"  It  is  but  natural  that  the  thousands  of  such  fellows  who  have 
their  corns  trod  on  by  the  new  doctrine,  should  find  themselves 
in  the  greatest  straits,  and  should  utter  malicious  exclamations, 
but  every  rational  person  perceives  from  these  cries  how  im- 
portant the  matter  is  in  reference  to  which  they  behave  so 
extravagantly,  and  that  they  cry  out  because  they  wish  to  cry 
down  the  better  treatment  which  they  are  too  lazy  and  too  proud 
to  adopt. 


154  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

"  The  stuff  they  write  is  too  evidentl)'  dictated  by  passion  and 
too  full  of  errors  and  falsehoods  to  impose  on  the  public  and 
induce  them  to  regard  such  bunglers  as  good  judges  of  this  im- 
portant matter. 

"The  truth  has  already  extended  its  rays  too  widely,  and 
shines  too  brightly  to  admit  of  being  eclipsed.* 

"Yours  very  truly, 

''Coethen,  Nov   14.,  1825.''  "Sam.  Hahnemann. 

And  again  in  the  same  year  he  saysrf  "  Remember  how  when 
Jenner's  cowpox  inoculation  had  been  adopted  far  and  near, 
quantities  of  disgraceful  invectives  were  published  against  it  in 
England — I  once  counted  twenty  such — now  they  are  not  to  be 
found,  probably  the  paper  on  which  they  were  printed  is  now 
used  to  wrap  up  cheese  in  a  grocer's  shop. 

"And  look  how  limited  are  the  applications  of  Jenner's  dis- 
covery compared  with  those  of  Homoeopathy.  It  puts  to  shame 
many  thousands  of  the  Allopaths,  most  of  whom  feel  that  they 
are  all  too  narrow-minded  and  stupid  to  tread  the  new  way  with 
success.  This  makes  many  thousands  malicious  in  the  highest 
degree.  They  scatter  broadcast,  venom  and  bile,  and  seek  to 
overwhelm  it  with  sophistry,  misrepresentation,  and  calumnies. 
But  what  does  it  matter?  They  injure  themselves,  not  us.  The 
truth  continues  to  advance  in  silence,  and  sensible  people  think 
those  who  indulge  in  abuse  are  in  the  wrong." 

Neither  did  Hahnemann  have  a  very  high  opinion  of  the 
scholarship  of  certain  of  his  detractors  and  critics.  In  the 
preface  to  Volume  III.  of  the  first  edition  of  the  "Materia 
Medica  Pura "  (1817)  he  published  an  article  called:  "  Nota 
Bene  for  my  Reviewers,"  in  which  he  says:  "I  have  read 
several  false  criticisms  on  the  second  part  (vol.)  of  my  '  Pure 
Materia  Medica,'  especially  on  the  essay  at  the  beginning  of  it, 
entitled  'Spirit  of  the  Homoeopathic  Medical  Doctrine.'  What 
an  immense  amount  of  learning  do  not  my  critics  display! 
I  shall  only  allude  to  those  who  write  and  print  'homopathic' 
and  'homopathy'  in  place  of  Homoeopathic  and  Homoeopathy, 
thereby  betraying  that  they  are  not  aware  of  the  immense  diflfer- 

*  Horn.  Worlds  Vol.  xxiv.,  p.  309.  Annals  Brit.  Horn.  Society,  Vol.  i., 
p.  495- 

•\  Horn.  World,  Vol.  xxiv.,  p.  311.  Auuals  Brit.  Horn.  Society,  Vol.  i  , 
p.  498. 


DEMOLITION    OF    HOMCEOPATHY.  1 55 

ence  betwixt  '''iJ-y'-'  and  oij.iuov,  but  consider  the  two  to  be  synony- 
mous. Did  the)^  never  hear  a  word  about  what  the  whole 
world  knows,  how  the  infinite  difference  betwixt  oiioobaio^  and 
oijMuibGuiz  once  split  the  whole  Christian  church  into  two  parts, 
impossible  to  be  re-united?  Do  they  not  understand  enough 
Greek  to  know  that  (alone  and  in  combination)  ^iim-j  means 
com77ion,  identical,  the  same  (e.  g.  ek  op.w  liyiiq  ei.qaya6dvM)i — Iliad), 
but  that  opMioy  only  means  similar,  resembling  the  object,  but  riever 
reachiiig  it  in  regard  to  nature  and  kind,  never  becoming  identical 
with  itf 

"The  Homoeopathic  doctrine  never  pretended  to  cure  a 
disease  by  the  same,  the  identical  power  by  which  the  disease 
was  produced — this  has  been  impressed  upon  the  unreasonable 
opponents  often  enough,  but,  as  it  seems,  in  vain;  no!  it  only 
cures  in  the  mode  most  consonant  to  nature,  by  means  of  a 
power  never  exactly  corresponding  to,  never  the  saine  as  the 
cause  of  the  disease,  but  by  means  of  a  medicine  that  possesses 
the  peculiar  power  of  being  able  to  produce  a  similar  morbid 
state. 

"Cannot  those  persons  feel  the  difference  hQ.im\-sX  ' identical' 
(the  same)  and  '  similar  V  Are  they  all  '  homopathically ' 
laboring  under  the  same  malady  of  stupidity?  Should  not  any- 
one who  ventia'es  to  step  forward  as  a  reviewer  <7/"the  '  Spirit  of  the 
Homoeopathic  Medical  Doctrine '  have  at  least  a  rudimentary 
idea  of  the  meaning  of  the  word  Homoeopathy? 

"Perversions  of  words  and  sense,  incomprehensible  palaver, 
which  is  meant  to  appear  learned,  abuse  and  theoretical  sceptical 
shakings  of  the  head,  instead  of  practical  demonstrations  of  the 
contrary,  seem  to  me  to  be  weapons  of  too  absurd  a  character  to 
use  against  a  fact  such  as  Homoeopathy  is;  they  remind  me  of 
the  little  figures  which  mischievous  boys  make  with  gunpowder 
and  set  on  fire  in  order  to  tease  people,  the  things  can  only  fizz 
and  splutter,  but  are  not  very  effective,  are,  on  the  whole,  very 
miserable  affairs. 

"My  respectable  brethren  on  the  opposition  benches,  I  can 
give  you  better  advice  about  overthrowing,  if  possible,  this  doc- 
trine Avliich  threatens  to  stifle  your  art,  that  is  founded  on  mere 
assumption,  and  to  bring  ruin  upon  all  your  therapeutic  lumber, 
lyisten  to  me!  .  .  .  The  doctrine  appeals  not  only  chiefly, 
but  solely   to  the  verdict  of  experience — '  repeat   the   experi- 


156  LIFE    OF   HAHNEMANN. 

meuts,'  it  cries  aloud,  '  repeat  them  carefully  and  accurately  and 
you  will  find  the  doctrine  confirmed  at  every  step  ' — and  it  does 
what  no  medical  doctrine,  no  system  of  physic,  no  so  called 
therapeutics  ever  did  or  could  do,  it  z'nsisfs  upon  being  'judged 
by  the  result.' 

"Here,  then,  we  have  Homoeopathy  just  where  we  wished  to 
have  it;  here  we  can  (come  on,  dear  gentlemen,  all  will  go  on 
nicely)  give  it  the  death  blow  from  this  side !" 

Hahnemann  then  challenges  his  adversaries  to  test  the  truth 
of  his  system  according  to  his  own  rules  laid  down  in  the 
"Organon,"  using  the  same  care  as  himself  would,  and  then 
says:  "If  it  does  not  give  relief — speedy,  mild  and  permanent 
relief — then,  by  a  publication  of  the  duly-attested  history  of  the 
treatment  according  to  the  principles  of  the  Homoeopathic  system 
strictly  followed  out,  you  will  be  able  to  give  a  public  refutation 
of  this  doctrine  which  so  seriously  threatens  the  old  darkness. 
But  I  pray  you  to  beware  of  playing  false  in  the  matter." 

He  advises  them  "of  the  opposition  benches"  if  they  know 
any  other  way  of  "suppressing  this  accursed  doctrine"  to  con- 
tinue after  the  usual  fashion.  "Continue  then  to  exalt  the  com- 
monplace twaddle  of  your  school  to  the  very  heavens  with  the 
most  fulsome  praise,  and  to  pervert  and  ridicule  with  your  evil 
mind  what  your  ignorance  does  not  pervert;  continue  to  calumni- 
ate, to  abuse,  to  revile — and  the  unprejudiced  will  be  able  plainly 
to  comprehend  on  whose  side  truth  lies. 

"If  you  really  wish  to  do  as  well  as  the  practitioners  of  Ho- 
moeopathy, imitate  the  Homoeopathic  practice  rationally  and 
honestly  ! 

"If  you  do  not  wish  this — well  then,  harp  away — we  will  not 
prevent  you — harp  away  on  your  comfortlesss  path  of  blind  and 
servile  obedience  in  the  dark  midnight  of  fanciful  systems, 
seduced  hither  and  thither  by  the  will-o'-the-wisps  of  your  ven- 
erated authorities,  who,  when  you  really  stand  in  need  of  aid 
leave  you  in  the  lurch — dazzle  your  sight  and  disappear. 

"And  if  your  unfortunate  practice,  from  which  that  which 
you  intended,  wished  and  promised,  does  ?io^  occur,  accumulates 
within  you  a  store  of  spiteful  bile,  which  seeks  to  dissipate  itself 
in  calumniating  your  betters — well  then,  continue  to  call  the 
grapes  up  yonder,  which  party  pride,  confusion  of  intellect,  weak- 


PUBI.IC    TRIAI^    OF    HOMCeOPATHY.  1 57 

ness  or  indolence  prevents  your  reaching-,  sour,  and  leave  them 
to  be  gathered  by  more  worthy  persons." 

This  delightful  bit  of  satire  is  dated  Leipzig,  February,  1817, 
and  is  signed  "Dr.  Samuel  Hahnemann."* 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 

PUBLIC     TRIALS     OP     HOMCEOPATHY  —  HKRING'S     CONVERSION  — 

LETTERS     TO     HERING — ACCURACY     OP    HAHNEMANN — 

HIS    FAITH    IN   THE   SPREAD    OP    HOMCEOPATHY. 

Up  to  the  year  1835  there  were  six  public  and  formal  trials, 
undertaken  by  order  of  governments,  made  of  Homoeopathic 
practice  :  i.  At  Vienna,  in  1828,  conducted  b}'-  Dr.  Marenzeller. 
2.  At  Tulzyn,  Russia,  in  1827.  3.  At  St.  Petersburg,  in 
1829-30,  by  Dr.  Hermann.  4.  At  Munich,  in  1830-31,  by  Dr. 
Attomyr.  5.  At  Paris,  in  1834,  by  Dr.  Andral,  Jr.  6.  At  Naples, 
in  1835,  by  order  of  the  King,  by  a  mixed  commission  in  the 
hospital  of  La  Trinite. 

These  were  all  made  by  Allopathic  physicians  and  were  not 
considered  by  members  of  the  Homoeopathic  school  as  fairly 
conducted. 

Dr.  Tessier,  in  1849-51,  made  tests  at  Hopital  Ste.  Mar- 
guerite, deciding  in  favor  of  the  Homoeopathic  system.  When 
he  presented  his  report  to  the  Paris  Academy  he  aroused  a 
storm  of  protest  for  his  fairness  in  admitting  that  there  was  good 
in  Homoeopathy.! 

It  is  worthy  of  mention  that  the  Preface,  "  Nota  Bene," 
quoted  in  the  last  chapter  was  the  cause  of  Dr.  Constantine 
Hering  becoming  interested  in  Homoeopathy.  J  C.  Baumgartner, 
the  founder  of  a  publishing  house  in  Leipsic,  wanted  a  book 
written  against  Homoeopathy.  This  was  about  the  time  that 
Hahnemann  was  driven  from  Leipsic,  and  it  was  then  supposed 
that  such  a  book  would  quite  finish  the  system. 

*"Reine  Arzneiniittellehre,"  Vol.  iii.     "  I^esser  Writings,"  New  York. 

fSee  Horn.  Examiner,  Vol.  i.,  p.  20  (1840).  Rosenstein's  "Theory  and 
Practice  of  Homceopathy,"  p.  267.  Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol  ii.,  p.  49;  Vol. 
xi.,  p.  133;  Vol.  xiv.,  p.  308. 

%U.  S.  Med.  and  Surg.  Jour.,  Vol.  iii.,  p.  116. 


158  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

Dr.  J.  H.  Robbi,  Hering's  preceptor,  was  asked  to  write  the 
book  but  refused  and  recommended  his  student,  Hering,  at  that 
time  twenty  years  of  age.  The  contract  was  made  and  the  book, 
written  during  the  winter  of  1821-22,  was  nearly  completed, 
when,  for  the  sake  of  making  quotations,  Hering  was  provided 
with  Hahnemann's  works.  In  the  third  volume  of  the  ' '  Materia 
Medica  Pura  "  he  discovered  this  "Nota  Bene  for  My  Critics." 
It  induced  him  to  make  experiments. 

The  book  was  discontinued;  Hering  now  endeavored  to  sepa- 
rate the  true  from  the  false  that  he  yet  thought  must  be  in  this 
new  and  peculiar  system.  Against  the  advice  of  friends,  patrons, 
and  teachers  he  continued  his  investigations.  In  two  years  he 
became  convinced  of  the  truth  of  Hahnemann's  discovery.  He 
now  suffered  persecutions,  want,  hunger,  and  was  obliged  to 
postpone  his  examination  for  his  degree. 

In  1825  a  younger  brother  offered  to  loan  him  money,  and 
while  inquiring  at  which  of  Germany's  thirty  universities  he 
could  get  his  degree  the  cheapest,  he  saw  some  notes  taken  from 
the  lectures  of  the  celebrated  pathologist,  Schoenlein,  of  Wurz- 
burg.  He,, was  so  pleased  that  he  took  up  his  bundle  and 
walked  into  Franconia  to  sit  at  the  feet  of  Schoenlein. 

He  would  not  deny  his  allegiance  to  Hahnemann,  and  there- 
fore was  obliged  to  pass  a  most  rigorous  examination.  He 
defended  his  thesis — "  De  Medicina  Futura" — in  which  he 
acknowledged  the  Homoeopathic  doctrines,  on  March  23,  1826. 
He  had  been  in  correspondence  with  Hahnemann  long  before 
this  time.  The  following  letters,  written  to  him  by  Hahne- 
mann when  he  was  yet  a  student  of  medicine,*  show  the  kindly 
regard  for  the  new  convert,  whom  he  had  never  seen.  It  may  be 
not  amiss  to  mention  that,  though  Hahnemann  and  Hering 
were  friends  from  this  time  until  the  death  of  the  former,  yet 
they   never  met.      Hering  almost  at  once  after  liis  graduation 


*Some  time  previous  to  i860.  Dr.  Hering  sent  to  Dr.  J.  Rutherford 
Russell,  of  England,  careful  copies  of  thirtj'-five  letters  written  by  Hahne- 
mann to  himself  and  to  Dr.  Stapf  It  was  Dr.  Russell's  intention  to  pub- 
lish a  life  of  the  master,  and  Dr.  Hering  thus  assisted  him.  The  life  was 
not  written,  but  Dr.  Russell  translated  and  published  the  letters  in  vols,  i, 
ii,  iii,  iv  of  the  "Annals  and  Transactions  of  the  British  HomcEopathic 
Society,  and  of  the  London  Homoeopathic  Hospital,"  1860-66.  He  also 
used  some  of  them  in  his  "History  and  Heroes  of  Medicine."  Dr.  Dud- 
geon must  have  had  access  to  these  letters  in  1889,  as  among  the  fifty-one 


LETTERS   TO    HERING.  159 

went  to  South  America  and  from  thence  sailed  for  Philadelphia, 
Hering  did  not  receive  his  degree  as  doctor  of  medicine  from  the 
Universit}'  of  Wurzburg  until  March  23,  1826,  although  he  had 
for  some  years  been  a  believer  in  the  doctrines  of  Hahnemann. 
The  letters  are  as  follows:* 
'' Dear  Mr.  HeHng  : 

"  Your  active  zeal  for  the  beneficent  art  delights  me,  and  I  be- 
lieve that  every  one  who  desires  to  render  valuable  services  to  it 
must  be  animated  by  equal  enthusiasm.  The  preparation  you 
kindly  sent  me  is,  I  perceive,  pure  iron  in  a  form  divested  of 
solidity  and  the  metallic  character,  modern  chemists  would  prob- 
ably call  it  Hydrure  de  fcr.  Dissolve  a  drachm  of  pure  sulphate 
of  iron  in  pure  water,  and  precipitate  it  with  spiritus  salts  ani- 
moniaci  vinosus,  wash  the  sediment  several  times  with  pure 
water  and  dry  it  in  blotting  paper,  and  then  see  if  you  do  not 
obtain  the  same  iron  powder.  It  is  a  fine  discovery,  and  the 
Ostriz  man  deserves  praise.      It  may  be  used  with  advantage. 

"I  regret  that  when  your  esteemed  letter  arrived  the  manu- 
script of  the  second  edition  of  the  second  volume  of  my  '  Materia 
Medica  Pura'  had  already  been  .^ent  to  press;  I  was  consequently 
unable  lo  introduce  the  preparation  of  iron  or  to  avail  myself  of 
your  offer  to  make  trials  of  it.  But  I  intend  ere  long  to  take 
advantage  of  your  kind  offer  for  other  substances.  You  make 
mention  of  your  sister,  is  she  with  you  in  Leipsic?  Do  you  also 
come  from  Oberlausitz  ?     What  led  you  to  study  medicine? 

"I  would  like  to  become  better  acquainted  with  you,  and  I 
pray  >ou  to  continue  to  be  a  right,  genuine,  good  man,  as  it  is 
impo.ssible  without  virtue  to  be  a  true  physician,  a  godlike 
helper  of  his  fellow  creatures  in  their  distress. 

"  Yours  very  truly, 

"SamukIv  Hahnemann." 
''Coetheii,  July  p,  1824..'' 

And  in  December  of  the  same  year  he  writes:  f- 
' '  Dear  Mr.  Hering : 

"  I  have  your  letter  of  the  24th  of  November  before  me,  an 

letters  of  Hahnemanu  he  translated  and  published  in  the  HomcBopathic 
World,  the  most  of  these  thirty-five  are  to  be  found.  The  above  letters 
to  Hering  are  among  the  number. 

*  Horn.  World,  Vol.  xxiv.,  p.  247.  "Annals  Brit.  Horn.  Society,"  Vol. 
ii.,  p.  242. 

t"  Annals  of  Brit.  Hom.  Society,"  Vol.  i  ,  p.  490. 


l6o  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

earlier  answer  I  was  prevented  from  giving  by  the  multitude  of 
my  occupations. 

"  As  you  wish  to  procure  a  master's  degree  in  the  old  system 
of  medicine  next  spring,  I  beg  and  counsel  you  not  to  allow 
your  Homoeopathic  opinions  to  be  known  by  the  Allopathic 
physicians  of  Leipsic,  least  of  all  by  that  most  implacable  of  all 
Allopaths,  Clarus,  if  you  do  not  wish  to  be  grievously  tormented 
at  your  examination  or  even  rejected.     *     *     * 

"  Yet,  when  you  have  got  your  degree,  and  have  pitched  upon 
the  place  of  your  future  practice,  then  fear  nothing  more  from 
the  obstacles  which  the  corporation  of  apothecaries  will  be  able 
to  put  in  your  way.  Some  escape  will  open  by  which  you  will 
be  able  to  put  the  good  method  into  practice. 

"  I  have  confidence  in  you  and  am  not  afraid  of  being  wrong 
in  regarding  you  as  one  of  the  few  of  my  followers,  who,  in  a 
higher  sense  than  the  common  (inspired  only  by  desire  of  gain 
and  reputation),  will  practice  the  divine  art  among  your  afflicted 
fellow-men  under  the  eye  of  the  Omnipresent,  then,  while  you 
will  not  miss  obtaining  the  so-called  temporal  gain,  you  will  also 
secure  the  approval  of  your  conscience,  without  which  kingdoms 
cannot  gi\e  happiness. 

"  If  you  wish  to  become  a  physician  in  this  nobler  sense  (that 
is  a  pure  benefactor  of  men),  standing  on  earth  a  representative 
of  God,  our  highest  benefactor,  and  to  be  a  right  good  man,  then 
will  you  be  one  of  the  few,  a  truly  happy,  joyful  man.  This  I 
wish  and  hope  for  you. 

"Only  he  who  is  good  can  be  sure  of  the  support  of  God, 
without  whom  we  can  accomplish  nothing,  from  whom  every- 
thing comes  which  contributes  to  the  cure  of  his  beloved  family 
of  man. 

"  From  your  offer  to  make  experiments  with  medicines  upon 
yourself,  assisted  by  your  sister,  I  will  make  use  when  you  are 
in  a  place  and  position  to  practice  your  art. 

"  Yours  most  obediently, 

' '  Sam.   Hahnemann. ' ' 

' '  Coethen ,  31st  of  Decern ber,  182^ . ' ' 

Among  the  many  visitors  to  Hahnemann  at  this  busy  period 
was  Dr.  F.  F.  Qnin,  of  England,  who,  in  1826,  went  to  Coethen 
for  the  purpose  of  studying  Homoeopathy  under  its  founder. 
He  had,  as  early  as   1823,  become  interested  in  it.     Dr.   Quin 


I 


ACCURACY   OF    HAHNEMANN.  l6l 

returned  to  England  in  1827,  and  at  once  commenced  the  prac- 
tice of  Homoeopathy,  having  the  honor  of  introducing  it  into 
that  country.* 

Exception  has  at  times  been  taken  by  some  members  of  the 
Homoeopathic  school  to  certain  of  the  symptoms  collected  pre- 
viously and  at  this  time,  and  published  in  the  "  Materia  Medica 
Pura  "  by  Hahnemann. 

Hahnemann's  excessive  carefulness  in  the  matter  of  express- 
ing his  exact  meaning  is  well  illustrated  in  this  letter  to  Gross, 
dated  December  26,  1825:!  "  The  terminology  should  be  settled 
from  the  first.  We  will  not  make  any  change  in  what  I  decided 
respecting  the  difference  betwixt  lanciyians  2caApungens.  Beyer's 
pressoriepidsatorius  is  certainly  better  Latin  \.\xa.n pressoj'io-pidsa- 
torius,  and  in  future  I  wish  that  the  first  adjective  of  such  com- 
posite terms  should  be  changed  into  the  adverbial  form  in  the 
same  way  as  pressorie  instead  of  pressorio.  When  I  find  some- 
thing better  than  my  own  I  adopt  it  willingly.  Kindly  see  this 
done. 

"  But  not  pressorius  and  pulsatorius,  for  that  does  not  convey 
the  idea  of  a  sensation  compounded  of  the  two,  but  implies  that 
it  was  sometimes  pressure,  sometimes  throbbing;  in  short,  both 
sensations  singly  side  by  side.  This  must  not  be  used  instead 
<i{  pressorio  pulsatorius . ' ' 

Again,  writing  to  Stapf,  September  i,  1825,  he  says:;}:  "One 
word  more.  In  future  volumes  of  the  Latin  translation  of  my 
'  Materia  Medica '  I  hope  you  will  be  still  more  careful  in  the 
■choice  of  symptoms,  especially  those  taken  from  Allopathic 
sources.  They  were  useful  to  me,  as  they  served  to  gain  for  me 
the  ear  of  the  profession,  showing  as  they  did  that  other  physi- 
cians had  observed  something  similar,  and  that  my  observations 
should  therefore  not  be  doubted.  But  you  do  not  require  this 
in  your  epitome,  it  is  not  necessary  to  show  this  in  your  book. 

'  'Yet  another  word.  It  is  absolutely  necessary  that  you  give  me 
the  numbers  of  the  symptoms  in  the  original  German  text  which 
you  translate  and  condense,  enclosed  in  brackets  after  each,  thus, 
(220,221).  II     For  how  else  can  the  reviser  find  them,  or  the  for- 

*"Annals  Brit.  Horn.  Society,"  Vol.  i.,  p.  5;  also  Appendix  Report,  ii. 

■\  Horn.   World,  Vol.  xxiv,  p.  312. 

XHom.  World,  Vol.  xxiv.,  p.  250. 

Jl  He  refers  to  the  traaslatioa  made  by  Stapf,  Gross  aud  Von  Bruiiuow. 


1 62  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

eigner  who  iitiderstands  a  little  German  look  them  up  in  the 
original  in  order  to  get  further  information  about  them?  Do 
this,  therefore,  in  your  manuscript. 

"  Hartlaub's  writings  are  well  thought  out  and  useful,  and  I 
think  highly  of  them. 

"  Should  you,  in  Naumburg,  see  a  paper  by  me  in  the  Mor- 
genblatt  on  the  refusal  to  allow  Homoeopaths  to  dispense  their 
own  medicines,  let  me  know.  I  have  exerted  myself  to  procure 
for  Homoeopaths  this,  their  inalienable  right.  He  who  allows 
the  medicines  to  be  made  by  another  (the  apothecary)  is  a  poor 
creature,  he  can't  do  what  he  ought,  he  is  no  Homoeopath. 

"  Yours  very  truly, 

"Sam.  Hahnemann." 

"Coethen,  September  i,  182^.'' 

Hahnemann  felt  no  uncertainty  as  to  the  final  fate  of  HomcE- 
opathy.  Two  years  before  the  Preface,  "Nota  Bene,"  was 
written  Stapf  had  expressed  a  wish  that  some  distinguished 
Allopath  should  be  converted  to  a  belief  in  Homoeopathy,  to 
which  Hahnemann  made  the  following  answer:  "That  you 
will  find  a  great  man  who  will  come  over  to  our  side  is,  in 
the  nature  of  things,  impossible.  If  he  be  already  a  man  of 
celebrity,  as  you  represent  him,  he  can  have  become  so  only  by 
means  of  the  gross  empirical  art  which  he  contrived  to  support, 
after  some  new  fashion,  by  compiling  in  manuals  the  thousand 
times  ruminated  trash  of  common  medicine,  or  by  hatching 
some  unelaborated,  unintelligible,  fine-spun  system,  or  by  pro- 
cesses and  fooleries  of  the  ordinary  sort,  which  he  carried  further 
than  his  colleagues,  and  raised  himself  above  them  only  by  tell- 
ing greater  and  more  audacious  falsehoods  than  they.  Such  an 
one  has  long  ago  decided  on  the  part  he  must  play;  he  can  wor- 
ship only  the  false  and  sophistical  system  which  raised  him  to 
his  place  of  honor. 

"  Never  would  he  be  able  to  recog  -ize  from  the  wilderness  of 
his  multifarious  knowledge  the  dignity  of  simple,  humbling 
truth;  and  he  would  be  on  his  guard,  if  some  helps  did  not 
reach  him,  to  take  them  as  little  as  possible  under  his  protection, 
inasmuch  as  they  would  expose  the  falsehood  of  all  his  former 
knowledge,  by  which  he  had  become  so  great,  and  would  leave 
nothing  sound  or  entire  about  him,  and  destroy  himself  and  his. 
knowledge. 


FAITH    IN    HOMCEOPATHY.  1 63 

"He  must  tread  under  foot  all  his  mock- consequence  before 
he  could  even  begin  to  be  our  disciple;  and  what  would  then 
remain  of  the  great  man  who  could  raise  us  by  his  countenance, 
since  his  infallibility  must  be  laid  in  the  dust;  and  the  halo  of 
universal  knowledge,  for  which  he  was  indebted  to  his  exalted 
station  alone,  must  first  be  extinguished,  by  the  study  of  a  new 
truth,  before  he  will  become  a  worthy  scholar  of  ours.  How 
could  he  become  our  protedoj-  without  first  receiving  the  truth 
we  teach,  that  is,  without  having  first  entered  our  school  ?  And 
then  must  be  thrown  away  all  that  rendered  him  great  in  the 
eyes  of  the  world;  and  even  to  perform  a  moderate  service  in  our 
cause  he  would  stand  in  need  oi  our  protection,  not  we  oi  his. 

"  Our  art  requires  no  political  levers,  no  worldly  decorations. 
At  present  it  grows  with  slow  progress  amid  the  abundance  of 
weeds  which  luxuriate  about  it;  it  grows  unobserved,  from  an 
unlikely  acorn  into  a  little  plant;  soon  may  its  head  be  seen 
overtopping  the  rank  weedy  herbage.  Only  wait — it  is  striking 
deep  its  roots  in  the  earth;  it  is  strengthening  itself  unper- 
ceived,  but  all  the  more  certainly;  and  in  its  own  time  it  will 
increase,  till  it  becomes  an  oak  of  God,  whose  arms,  unmoved 
by  the  wildest  storm,  stretch  in  all  directions,  that  the  suffering 
children  of  men  may  be  revived  under  its  beneficent  shadow."  * 

This  description  of  the  so-called  man  of  science  applies  very 
well  to  our  own  times  and  to  the  present  scientific  craze  for 
germs,  microbes,  lymph-injections,  bacilli  and  other  short-lived 
"discoveries." 

Dudgeon  saysif  "That  Hahnemann  felt,  and  felt  deeply,  the 
unjust  calumnies  and  unceasing  persecution  to  which  he  was 
subjected,  we  have  ample  evidence  from  various  passages  in  his 
works,  from  the  year  1800  upwards.  Among  the  papers  found 
at  his  death  one  bore  the  following  inscription  intended  as  an 
epitaph  on  his  tomb,  which  reads  like  the  last  sigh  of  a  martyr — 
'  L,iber  Tandem  Quiesco.'  " 

Hahnemann  could  not  have  been  human  had  not  this  tempest 
of  villification  affected  him.  But  that  his  firm  faith  in  the 
future  of  Homoeopathy  was  well  founded  is  most  powerfully 
illustrated  by  the  colleges,  hospitals,  dispensaries  and  number- 
less followers  of  the  school  at  the  present  day. 

*Stapf's  "Archiv.,"  Vol.  xxi.,  pt.  2,  p.  129.  Brit.  Jour.  Ho^n.,  Vol.  iii., 
p.  197. 

t  "  Biography  of  Hahuemanu,"  p.  46. 


1 64  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

CHAPTER  XXXII. 

THEORY  OF  CHRONIC  DISEASES — LETTER  TO  BAUMGARTNER. 

In  the  year  1828  Hahnemann  published  a  most  important 
book,  entitled  "  Chronic  Diseases,  Their  Nature  and  Homoeo- 
pathic Treatment  "  It  was  issued  in  four  volumes,  three  in 
1828  and  the  fourth  in  1830,  by  his  old  publisher,  Arnold,  of 
Dresden  and  Leipsic. 

The  first  volume  is  dedicated  "to  Ernst,  Baron  von  Brunnow. 
by  his  friend  Samuel  Hahnemann.  "  In  the  preface  to  this 
volume  he  says  :  "If  I  did  not  know  for  what  purpose  I  exist 
upon  earth — to  make  myself  as  good  as  possible,  and  to  improve 
things  and  men  around  me  to  the  best  of  my  ability,  I  should 
have  to  consider  myself  deficient  in  worldly  wisdom  for  promul- 
gating before  my  death  an  art,  whose  sole  possessor  I  was,  and 
which,  being  kept  secret,  might  have  become  a  source  of  per- 
manently increasing  profit  to  me.  " 

In  1827,  one  year  previous,  he  called  his  two  eldest  and  best 
beloved  disciples,  Drs.  Stapf  and  Gross,  to  Coethen,  and  told 
them  about  his  great  discover)'  of  the  origin  of  chronic  diseases, 
and  asked  them  to  test  in  practice  the  action  of  certain  remedies 
that  he  then  designated  by  the  name  of  antipsorics. 

He  had  been  slow,  as  he  himself  says,  in  imparting  this  secret 
to  his  pupils  and  followers.  He  had,  however,  as  the  following 
letter  will  show,  made  some  confidants. 

Hahnemann  wished  to  establish  a  hospital,  in  order  that 
chronic  maladies  could  be  treated  in  strict  accordance  with  his 
own  ideas.  He  had  also  endeavored  to  induce  Duke  Ferdinand 
to  found  this  hospital  at  Coethen. 

In  the  Allgemeine  Zeittoig  for  December  7,  1846,  the  following 
letter  was  published,  preceded  by  ihese  remarks  by  the  editor:* 

"  We  publish  herewith  for  various  reasons  a  letter  written  by 
Dr.  Hahnemann  to  the  deceased  Consul  General,  Dr.  Friedrich 
Gotthelf  Baumgartner.  It  was  among  the  documents  left  by 
the  deceased,  and  was  sent  to  us  for  publication  by  his  son, 
Julius  A.  Baumgartner,  City  Counsellor.     It  seemed  .strange  to 

*Allg.  Horn.  Zeitung,  Vol.  xxxii.,  p.  41  (Dec.  7.  1846);  also  Neue  Zeit- 
schriftjur  Horn.  Klinik  (Hirschel),  Vol.  xvi.,  p.  105  (July  15,  1871). 


I 


THEORY    OF    CHRONIC    DISEASES.  1 65 

US  that  Hahnemann,  in  his  old  age,  should  busy  himself  in 
founding  a  hospital,  and  should  wish  to  assume  the  direction  of 
it.  It  was  some  thing  new  to  us  that  he  could  not  make  known 
his  great  discovery  respecting  the  treatment  of  chronic  diseases 
by  his  publications,  but  only  by  clinical  instruction,  which 
might  be  done  if  in  accordance  with  his  wish  he  should  be  per- 
mitted to  have  a  hospital. 

"  It  was  well  known  to  his  old  pupils  that  he  left  Leipsic  un- 
willingly, and  in  this  letter  the  reader  finds  the  compelling 
reason.  His  mistrust  of  his  pupils  finds  sufficient  excuse  in  the 
many  bitter  disappointments  which  he  persuaded  himself  that 
he  had  experienced  to  a  much  greater  extent  than  any  other 
person,  an  opinion  that  would  naturally  become  more  and  more 
decisive  with  advancing  age. 

"  We  all  know  that  he  must  have  received  a  handsome  royalty 
through  his  publications,  yet  we  cannot  blame  him  for  estimat- 
ing his  communications  at  a  far  higher  rate;  but  on  the  other 
hand,  we  must  acknowledge  that  but  few  authors  will  be  offered 
such  a  generous  royalty,  and  that  he  won  for  himself  through 
the  publication  of  his  teachings  both  an  enormous  throng  of 
patients  and  well  merited  honors,  which  might  easily  make  him 
forget  the  seeming  ingratitude  of  his  pupils.  The  following  is 
the  letter  mentioned: 
'''Right  Honorable  Doctor  and  Consul- General,  Beloved  Patron: 

"I  regard  it  as  a  kind  of  providential  foresight  that  you,  a 
man  of  such  high  consideration  and  authority,  should  have  the 
sagacity  to  try  to  help  honor  a  healing  art,  which,  because  of  its 
simplicity,  verity  and  incredible  efficacy,  has  been  so  maligned 
in  a  thousand  ways,  as  well  as  often  reviled  and  suppressed  b)^ 
the  great  fraternity  of  physicians,  proud  in  their  comfortable  old 
practice. 

"  I  have  read  your  report  to  the  City  of  Berlin,  and  I  honor 
and  revere  you  most  sincerely  for  this  great  act  of  beneficence. 
May  God  bless  you. 

"  I  also  thank  you  for  the  banquet  which  you  have  given  in 
honor  of  my  system  of  medicine,  and  I  highly  appreciate  your 
public  aknowledgment  of  the  value  of  Homoeopathy.  It  must 
have  created  quite  a  sensation  among  your  friends. 

"  I  heartily  wish  that  the  kingdom  of  Saxony  had  acted  more 
fairly  towards  me,  for  a  genuine  Homoeopathic  physician  who 


l66  LIFE   OF    HAHNEMANN. 

will  practice  his  system  exclusively  and  conscientiously  can 
need  no  assistance  other  than  in  the  preparation  of  his  medicines, 
and  can  need  no  apothecary,  which  of  itself  would  be  a  veritable 
blessing. 

"  In  that  case,  too,  I  need  not  have  left  I^eipsic,  which  is  so 
dear  to  me,  and  been  obliged  to  settle  here  at  an  expense  to  my- 
self of  more  than  two  thousand  thalers. 

"  I  rejoice  that  you  are  so  far  on  the  way  to  recovery;  I  advise 
you  to  avoid,  if  possible,  the  least  indisposition,  and  to  relieve 
the  nightly  drying  of  the  wound  and  the  numbness  of  the  large 
toe  by  such  Homoeopathic  remedies  as  you  see  in  the  books. 

"There  will  always  remain  some  ailments  uncured  by 
Homoeopathy,  the  remains  of  some  deep-seated  chronic  disease. 
For  the  perfect  healing  of  a  large  family  of  chronic  diseases,  not 
even  all  that  I  have  written  on  Homoeopathy  is  sufficient.  But 
incredibly  more  is  effected  by  it  in  these  old  diseases  than  by 
the  medicines  prescribed  by  the  Allopaths.  But,  in  Homoeo- 
pathic writings  as  yet  published,  there  is  still  lacking  the  great 
keystone  which  binds  together  all  that  has  been  thus  far  pub- 
lished, so  that  the  healing  of  chronic  diseases  may  be  not  only 
expedited,  but  also  brought  to  the  condition  of  complete 
recovery. 

"To  discover  this  still- lacking  keystone  and  thus  the  means  of 
entirely  obliterating  the  ancient  chronic  diseases,  I  have  striven 
night  and  day,  for  the  last  four  years,  and  by  thousands  of  trials 
and  experiences  as  well  as  by  uninterrupted  meditation  I  have 
at  last  attained  my  object.  Of  this  invaluable  discovery,  of 
which  the  worth  to  mankind  exceeds  all  else  that  has  ever  been 
discovered  by  me,  and  without  which  all  existent  Homoeopathy 
remains  defective  or  imperfect,  none  of  my  pupils  as  yet  know 
anything. 

"  It  is  still  wholly  my  property.  Therefore  the  worst  chronic 
diseases  which  not  only  the  physicians  of  the  old  school,  but 
also  the  best  among  the  Homoeopaths,  must  leave  unhealed,  are 
still  in  the  same  condition;  since,  as  said  before,  the  Homoeo- 
pathic system  as  till  now  promulgated  by  me,  however  much  it 
can  do,  has  not  by  a  long  way  reached  that  perfect  healing  which 
has  become  possible  only  since  this  new  discovery,  the  result  of 
unspeakable  efforts. 

"But   this  knowledge,  now   finally  attained,  is  of  such  kind 


THE   THEORY    OF    CHRONIC    DISEASES.  167 

that  I  can  impart  it  in  a  practical  way  to  young  students  only  by 
special  inspection  at  the  bedside  in  some  clinical  establishment. 
And  in  order  that  I  might  be  able  to  do  this  before  my  death,  I 
entreated  our  Duke  to  establish  a  hospital  for  the  purpose. 

"It  appeared  acceptable  to  him,  but,  notwithstanding  his 
seeming  willingness  to  establish  one,  I  see  plainly  that  nothing 
will  come  of  it.     We  have  as  yet  no  public  hospital  in  Coethen. 

"  Nothing  will  be  done  in  the  matter  in  this  place,  so  far  as  I 
can  see;  and  it  would  be  much  more  agreeable  to  me  to  have 
such  an  establishment  in  a  larger  place. 

"Since  this  knowledge  cannot  be  communicated  by  written 
works,  but  men  must  hear,  see,  and  be  convinced  for  themselves, 
I  shall,  perhaps,  have  to  take  this  treasure  with  me  to  the 
grave,  and  can  merely  appropriate  it  in  my  lifetime  to  my  own 
needs  in  thus  healing  those  invalids  whom  no  one  else  can  heal. 

"  This  is  but  a  slight  advantage  to  be  gained  by  me,  who  have 
so  willingly  communicated  to  the  world  everything  prior  to  this 
discovery,  and  have  received  therefor  but  little  thanks  from  my 
own  pupils  and  from  Allopathists,  as  well  as  persecution  from 
public  officials  who  have  an  eye  to  the  benefit  of  apothecaries. 

"  I  whisper  in  your  ear  this  important  confession,  and  I  beg 
that  you,  who  are  my  very  dear  friend,  will  impart  it  to  no  one 
in  lycipsic.  I  may  rest  assured  that  you,  whose  heart  is  all 
aglow  for  the  welfare  of  humanity,  will  make  the  very  best  use 
of  it. 

"A  friend  who  esteems  you  most  highly, 
"  Your  humble  servant, 

' '  Samuel  Hahnemann  . ' ' 

"  Coethen^  January  10,  i82j.^' 

From  the  years  1816  to  1828  Hahnemann  had  been  giving 
his  thoughts  to  a  new  and  startling  doctrine  regarding  the 
origin  and  cure  of  diseases.  There  were  certain  diseases  of  long 
standing  or  chronic  that  did  not  respond  properly  to  the  Hom- 
oeopathic remedies.  For  a  time  the  small  number  of  Homoeo- 
pathic medicines  known  w^as  the  excuse  given  for  this  failure. 
Hahnemann  says  :  * 

"  Hitherto  the  followers  of  Homoeopathy   were  satisfied  with 

*The  quotations  in  this  chapter  are  from  the  MSS  of  au  unpublished 
translation  of  "Die  Chronischeu  Krankheiten,  "  made  by  and  in  the  pos- 
session of  Dr.  Augustus  Korndoerfer,  ot  Philadelphia. 


l68  LIFE    OF   HAHNEMANN. 

this  excuse,  but  the  founder  of  Homoeopathy  never  took  ad- 
vantage of  it  nor  did  he  find  comfort  therein.  The  yearly  addi- 
tion of  proved  powerful  remedies  did  not  advance  the  treatment 
of  chronic  (non- venereal)  diseases  a  single  step,  whereas  the 
acute  if  not  fatal  in  character  from  the  beginning  were  not  only 
markedly  relieved  by  the  correctly  employed  Homoeopathic 
remedy,  but  with  the  aid  of  our  ever  active  life-sustaining  force 
promptly  and  thoroughly  cured. 

"  Why  should  this  vital  force  which,  aided  by  the  Homoeo- 
pathic remedy  is  sufficient  for  the  restoration  of  the  integrity  of 
the  organism,  and  for  the  accomplishment  of  perfect  recovery 
from  the  most  virulent  acute  diseases,  fail  to  afford  any  true  or 
lasting  benefit  in  the  various  chronic  diseases,  even  though 
aided  by  the  Homoeopathic  remedies,  best  indicated  by  the  exist-" 
ing  symptoms.     What  prevents  its  action? 

"In  order  to  answer  this  most  natural  question,  I  was  com- 
pelled to  investigate  the  nature  of  these  chronic  diseases. 

"Since  the  years  1816  and  1817  I  have  been  occupied  day 
and  night  in  efforts  to  discover  the  reason  why  the  known 
Homoeopathic  remedies  did  not  affect  a  true  cure  of  the  above- 
mentioned  chronic  diseases;  and  sought  to  secure  a  more  ac- 
curate, and,  if  possible,  a  correct  insight  into  the  true  nature  of 
these  thousands  of  chronic  diseases,  which  remained  uncured 
despite  the  uncontrovertible  truth  of  the  Homoeopathic  doctrine. 
When  behold  !  the  Giver  of  all  good  permitted  me,  after  unceas- 
ing meditation,  indefatigable  research,  careful  observation  and 
the  most  accurate  experiments  to  solve  this  sublime  problem  for 
the  benefit  of  mankind.  " 

And  in  a  footnote  he  says:  "During  these  years  nought  of 
these  efforts  was  made  known  to  the  world  nor  even  to  my  own 
disciples.  This  was  not  owing  to  the  ingratitude  which  I  had 
frequently  experienced,  for  I  heed  neither  the  ingratitude  nor 
yet  the  persecutions  which  I  encounter  in  my  wearisome  though 
not  joyless  life-path.  No,  I  said  nought  thereof  because  it  is 
unwise,  yea,  even  harmful  to  speak  or  write  of  things  yet  imma- 
ture. In  the  year  1827  I  first  made  known  the  most  important 
features  of  my  discoveries  to  two  of  my  most  worthy  disciples, 
not  only  for  their  benefit  and  that  of  their  patients,  but  in  addi- 
tion that  the  whole  of  this  knowledge  might  not  be  lost  to  the 
world  through  my  death,  for  having  reached  my  73d  year  it  was 


THE   THEORY   OF   CHRONIC   DISEASES.  1 69 

not  improbable  that  I  might  be  called  into  eternity  before  I  could 
complete  this  book." 

As  early  as  1816,  in  an  "Essay  on  the  Improper  Treatment  of 
the  Venereal  Disease,"  Hahnemann  mentions  the  itch  of  wool 
manufacturers,  and  says:*  "As  soon  as  the  itch  vesicles  have 
made  their  appearance  this  is  a  sign  that  the  internal  itch  disease 
is  already  fully  developed.  The  itch  vesicles  that  now  appear, 
are  hence  no  mere  local  malady,  but  a  proof  of  the  completion  of 
the  internal  disease." 

This  is  much  like  the  theory  of  chronic  diseases  propounded 
twelve  years  later. 

Hahnemann  found  that  the  non-venereal  chronic  diseases,  after 
being  for  a  time  removed  by  the  Homoeopathic  remedies,  often 
reappeared  in  a  more  or  less  modified  form.     He  says  of  this: 

"  The  constant  repetition  of  the  fact  that  the  non  venereal 
chronic  diseases,  even  after  having  been  repeatedly  relieved  by 
the  then  known  Homoeopathic  remedies,  persistently  reappeared 
in  more  or  less  modified  form,  yea,  every  year  adding  new 
symptoms,  gave  me  the  first  intimation  that  the  physician  had 
not  alone  to  contend  with  the  phenomena  which  constituted  the 
appreciable  manifestations  of  disease,  and  that  such  phenomena 
were  not  to  be  regarded  or  treated  as  independent  diseases.  Had 
it  been  otherwise  they  would  promptly  and  permanently  have 
been  cured  by  the  Homoeopathic  remedies,  which,  however,  was 
not  the  case. 

"  It  was  evident  that  the  physician  had  to  deal  with  a  deep- 
seated  primary  evil,  the  great  extent  of  which  was  made  mani- 
fest by  the  new  conditions  which  from  time  to  time  were  developed. 

"  It  was  also  evident  that  if  he  treated  such  conditions  as  sepa- 
rate and  independent  diseases,  as  hitherto  taught,  he  dared  not 
hope  to  so  permanently  cure  them  as  to  prevent  their  reappear- 
ance, either  in  their  original  form,  or  with  new  and  more  dis- 
tressing symptoms;  therefore,  it  became  evident  that  the  physi- 
cian must  know  every  symptom  and  condition  of  this  obscure 
primary  evil  before  he  could  hope  to  discover  one  or  more  funda- 
mental remedies  whose  symptoms  cover  the  totality  of  the 
symptoms  of  the  primary  affection,  and  through  which  he  might 
compass  the  disease  as  a  whole  as  well  as  its  individual  symp- 
toms, thus  radically  curing  and  removing  every  portion  thereof. 

*  "Lesser  Writings,"  New  York,  p.  649. 


IJO  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

"That,  however,  this  primary  aflfection  must  also  be  of  a  mias- 
matic chronic  nature  appeared  to  me  quite  evident,  in  that  as 
soon  as  it  had  reached  a  certain  height  and  development  neither 
the  most  robust  constitution  nor  yet  the  best  regulated  diet  and 
mode  of  life  proved  sufficient  to  overcome  it;  nor  did  it  ever 
cease  of  itself.  On  the  contrary,  its  symptoms  changed  and 
became  more  serious  from  year  to  year  to  the  end  of  life. 

"This  holds  true  of  every  chronic  miasmatic  disease,  for 
instance  syphilis,  which,  when  the  chancre  has  not  been  cured 
by  its  specific,  Mercury,  never  becomes  extinct  of  itself,  but 
(despite  the  best  mode  of  life  and  the  most  robust  constitution) 
each  year  develops  new  and  worse  symptoms  until  the  end  of  life. 

'  'Thus  far  had  I  gone  in  my  investigations  and  observations  upon 
(non-venereal)  chronic  patients  when  I  observed  that  the  hind- 
rance to  the  cure  of  these  (seemingly  independent)  varied  forms 
of  disease  by.  the  best  proved  Homoeopathic  remedies  in  most  cases 
lay  in  the  fact  of  a  pre-existent  itch  eruption.  All  the  sufferings 
usually  arose  subsequent  to  such  time.  In  those  chronic  patients 
who  would  not  confess  to  such  infection,  or  who  through  inat- 
tention had  failed  to  observe  it,  or  could  not  recollect  the  fact, 
careful  inquiries  usually  disclosed  the  existence  of  vestiges  of 
the  itch  (single  itch  vesicles,  herpes,  etc.),  which  from  time  to 
time  gave  unmistakable  evidence  of  such  pre  existent  infection." 


CHAPTER  XXXIII. 

CHRONIC    DISEASES    CONTINUED — PSORA  A  CAUSE   OF   DISEASE — 
THE  ITCH  THEORY — DR.   RAUE  ON  THE  ITCH  THEORY. 

This  latent  taint  in  the  system  preventing  the  cure  of  certain 
diseases  Hahnemann  named /'j-<7r«.  He  considered  it  communi- 
cable from  one  person  to  another,  and  called  it  "  a  sort  of  internal 
itch."  He  further  said  that  there  were  certain  long-acting  reme- 
dies that  were  peculiarly  adapted  to  the  eradication  of  this  subtle 
poison  from  the  sj^stem,  and  that  until  it  was  removed  there 
could  be  no  permanent  return  to  health.  To  these  remedies  he 
gave  the  name  of  antipsorics.  According  to  Hahnemann's  theory 
there  are  three  causes  producing  diseases  of  long  standing,  or 
chronic,  and  which  can  not  be  relieved  by  the  vis  viedicaMx 
natiircB,  or  by  the  means  used  in  curing  acute  diseases.     To  these 


CHRONIC    DISEASES    CONTINUED.  171 

causes  he  gave  the  names:  Psora,  Syphilis  and  Sycosis.  These 
may  exist  alone  or  become  combined  in  the  system,  and  are 
characterized  by  certain  groups  of  symptoms.  A  full  elucida- 
tion of  this  doctrine  may  be  found  in  Volume  I.  of  the  "  Chronic 
Diseases." 

It  has  been  said  that  Hahnemann  was  the  inventor  of  the 
"itch  theory,"  so-called.  This  is  not  true,  nor  did  he  ever 
lay  claim  to  be  its  discoverer.  He  says:*  "Careful  observa- 
tions, comparisons  and  experiments  during  these  latter  years 
have  taught  me  that  these  exceedingly  varied  sufferings  of  body 
and  mind  in  the  different  patients  are  (provided  they  do  not 
belong  to  the  venereal  diseases,  syphilis  or  sycosis)  but  partial 
manifestations  of  this  ancient  chronic  lepra  and  itch  miasm; 
that  is,  they  are  but  offspring  of  one  and  the  same  primitive  evil, 
and  though  manifesting  almost  numberless  symptoms,  must  be 
viewed  as  but  parts  of  one  and  the  same  disease  and  treated 
accordingly. 

"  Psora  is  the  oldest,  most  universal  and  most  pernicious,  yet, 
withal,  the  most  misunderstood  chronic  miasmatic  disease,  which 
for  thousands  of  years  has  disfigured  and  tortured  mankind. 

"  In  the  thousands  of  years  since  it  first  visited  mankind  (the 
most  ancient  history  of  the  oldest  nations  does  not  reach  its 
origin)  it  has  increased  its  manifestations  to  such  a  degree  that 
its  secondary  symptoms  can  scarcely  be  numbered. 

"  The  most  ancient  historical  writings  which  we  possess  de- 
scribe psora  very  fully.  Several  varieties  thereof  were  described 
by  Moses  3,400  years  ago.  At  that  time,  however,  and  ever 
since,  among  the  Israelites,  psora  appears  to  have  affected  more 
especially  the  external  parts  of  the  body. 

"  The  same  holds  true  among  the  early  barbaric  Greeks;  later, 
in  like  manner,  among  the  Arabians,  and  finally  in  the  uncivil- 
ized Europe  of  the  middle  ages.  It  is  not  my  object  to  detail 
the  different  names  by  which  the  various  nations  have  designated 
the  more  or  less  severe  forms  of  disease  through  which  leprosy 
marred  the  external  parts  of  the  body  (external  symptoms  of 
psora).  Such  names  have  no  bearing  upon  the  subject,  as  the 
essence  of  this  miasmatic  itch -disease  remains  always  the  same. 

*"Die  chronischen  Krankheiten,  ihre  eigenthumliche  Natur  und  homo- 
opathische  Heilung."  1835.  Vol.  i.,  pp.  10-12.  Dr.  Korndoerfer's  traus- 
lation. 


172  LIFE   OF    HAHNEMANN. 

"  In  Europe  during  several  centuries  of  the  middle  ages  psora 
manifested  itself  in  the  form  of  a  malignant  erysipelas  (St. 
Anthony's  Fire).  In  the  13th  century  it  again  assumed  the  form 
of  leprosy,  brought  by  the  returning  Crusaders  from  the  East, 
lycprosy  was  thus  more  than  ever  before  spread  through  liurope 
(in  the  year  1226  there  were  in  France  about  2,000 leper-houses); 
nevertheless  some  alleviation  of  its  horrible  cutaneous  symptoms 
was  found  through  the  means  of  cleanliness  which  the  Crusaders 
also  brought  from  the  East;  aids  to  cleanliness  theretofore  un- 
known in  Europe,  (cotton,  linen)  shirts,  as  well  as  the  frequent 
use  of  warm  baths.  These  means  in  conjunction  with  increasing 
education,  better  selected  diet  and  improved  mode  of  living  suc- 
ceeded in  a  couple  of  centuries  in  so  diminishing  the  external 
hideousness  of  psora  that  towards  the  close  of  the  15th  century 
it  manifested  itself  only  in  the  ordinary  itch  eruption." 

Hahnemann  then  quotes  from  about  a  hundred  Allopathic 
authorities  who  believed  in  the  truth  of  this  psoric  or  itch  theory, 
and  gives  from  their  writings  illustrations  of  cases  of  various 
chronic  diseases  resulting  from  suppressed  eruptions. 

Hahnemann  undoubtedly  uses  the  word  itch  to  designate  very 
many  forms  of  skin  disease.  He  says:  "  I  call  it  psora  with  the 
view  of  giving  it  a  general  designation.  I  am  persuaded  that 
not  only  are  the  majority  of  the  innumerable  skin  diseases  which 
have  been  described  and  distinguished  by  Willan,  but  also  al- 
most all  the  pseudo-organizations,  with  few  exceptions,  merely 
the  products  of  the  multiform  psora." 

Hoffmann  taught  this  theory  before  Hahnemann  was  born. 
Schoenlein,  of  Berlin,  in  a  lecture  said:  *"It  was  remarkably 
impudent  of  Hahnemann  to  pretend  that  he  was  the  first  to  point 
out  the  consequences  of  the  itch.  I  have  no  doubt  whatever 
about  the  existence  of  the  consequences  of  the  itch." 

Dr.  C.  G.  Raue,  in  a  lecture  delivered  before  the  students  of 
Hahnemann  Medical  College,  of  Philadelphia,  said  in  relation  to 
this  subject:  t"It  seems,  then,  that  the  detection  of  the  itch- 
insect  by  Bonomo  in  1683  has,  after  all,  nothing  to  do  with 
Hahnemann's  psora  theory.  This  has  its  foundation  deeper  laid 
than  the  itch-insect  will  ever  dig;  and,  as  Hahnemann  probably 

*Henderson's  "Homoeopathy  Fairly  Represented,"  p.  169.  Philadel- 
phia, 1854.    Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  ii,  p.  316. 

■\Med.  Institute,  Philadelphia,  December,  1886,  p.  121. 


LETTERS   TO   STAFF.  1 73 

knew  of  this  little  animal,  it  does  not  seem  to  have  disturbed 
him  much  in  his  eleven  years'  work  to  find  those  grand  remedies 
which  we  are  still  necessitated  to  employ  against  those  deep 
seated,  chronic  ailments,  the  nature  of  which  he  designated  by 
the  term  'Psora,'  'that  most  ancient,  most  common,  most  ruin- 
ous and  yet  most  misapprehended  disease,  of  a  chronic  mias- 
matic nature,  which  has  deformed  and  tortured  mankind  since 
thousands  of  years,  and  which,  in  the  last  centuries,  has  become 
the  mother  of  the  thousands  of  diverse  chronic  (or  acute)  com- 
plaints under  which  the  civilized  world  now  is  suffering.' 

"  Does  this  sound  as  though  it  meant  only  the  acarus  itch  ?  In 
order  to  be  sure  of  it  read  the  testimony  of  the  hundreds  of 
physicians,  which  Hahnemann  quotes  ('Chronic  Diseases,'  pp. 
22-40)  in  order  to  show  the  pernicious  effects  which  these  phy- 
sicians had  observed  in  consequence  of  the  suppression  of  all 
kinds  of  cutaneous  eruptions.  This  oldest  and  commonest  source 
of  diseases  had  to  have  a  name,  and  Psora  was  as  good  a  name 
as  Eczema,  Impetigo,  Prurigo,  or  any  other.  It  is  just  as  true 
to-day  that  a  suppression  of  cutaneous  eruptions  of  various  kinds 
will  be  followed  by  disastrous  consequences  upon  the  general 
system,  as  it  was  when  Hahnemann  and  others  observed  it ;  and 
it  is  either  ignorance  or  self-conceit  that  picks  at  a  name  with- 
out weighing  its  full  meaning,  or  the  vanity  of  scientific  dudes 
who  like  to  be  seen  among  the  fashionables." 


CHAPTER  XXXIV. 

LETTERS    TO  STAFF    ON    THE  "  CHRONIC  DISEASES.  " — VACCINA- 
TION-THEORY. 

The  following  letter  to  Stapf,  written  just  previous  to  the 
publication  of  the  book  on  "Chronic  Diseases,"  is  of  interest:  * 

''Coethen,  Sept.  6,  182'j. 
' '  Dear  Doctor  : 

"  Your  impatient  vehemence  is  no  doubt  owing  to  your  praise- 
worthy thirst  for  knowledge,  but  as  regards  its  object  it  must  be 
considered  a  slight  mistake  on  your  part.  I  have  only  written 
one  clean  transcript  of  the  symptoms  of  the  antipsorics,  and  it  is 

*  Horn.  World,  Vol.  xxiv,  p.  490.  "Annals  Brit.  Horn.  Society,"  "Vol.  ii, 
p.  74- 


174  LIFE   OF    HAHNEMANN. 

in  daily  use;  it  is,  therefore,  impossible  for  me  to  communicate 
them  to  you. 

"  You  cannot  possibly  be  serious  in  expecting  me  to  prescribe 
a  treatment  for  the  pathological  names  you  mention.  But  if 
you  will  sometimes  communicate  to  me  the  symptoms  of  disease, 
then  if  my  limited  time  and  my  remaining  vital  powers  will  al- 
low I  shall  be  happy  to  advise  you. 

"  I  have  cause  to  be  thankful  that  you  do  not  need  to  regard 
chronic  diseases  as  paradoxes  or  inexplicable  phenomena,  the 
nature  of  which  is  hidden  in  impenetrable  obscurity.  You 
possess  now  the  solution  of  the  riddle  why  neither  Niix,  nor 
Pulsatilla,  nor  Ignatia,  etc.,  will  or  can  do  good,  while  yet  the 
Homoeopathic  principle  is  inexpugnable. 

"You  are  now  acquainted  with  the  estimable  remedies,  you 
have  them  and  can  employ  them,  empirically  at  least,  for  you 
know  even  what  doses  to  give  them  in.  Just  imagine  what 
sacrifices  it  has  cost  me  to  carry  out  to  the  end  this  investigation 
for  the  benefit  of  yourself  and  the  whole  medical  world.  I  can- 
not do  more  until  my  book  appears,  and  it  still  demands  an 
amount  of  work  which  is  almost  too  much  for  my  vital  powers. 
Be  reasonable,  therefore,  and  do  what  you  can  with  your  anti- 
psorics.  Even  after  I  had  them  I  did  not  at  first  know  what 
they  would  do.  You  may,  whilst  using  them,  make  excellent 
observations  on  their  peculiar  effects  and  gain  much  knowledge 
respecting  them,  as  also  by  the  many  splendid  cures  you  may 
perform  with  them,  as  you  have  only  six  or  eight  medicines  to 
choose  from,  and  not  from  the  whole  Materia  Medica. 

"You  and  Gross  are  the  only  ones  to  whom  I  have  revealed 
this  matter.  Just  think  what  a  start  you  have  in  advance  of  all 
the  other  physicians  in  the  world.  At  least  a  year  will  elapse 
before  the  others  get  my  book;  they  will  then  require  more  than 
half  a  year  to  recover  from  the  fright  and  astonishment  at  the 
monstrous,  unheard  of  thing,  perhaps  another  half  year  before 
they  believe  it,  at  all  events  before  they  provide  themselves  with 
the  medicines,  and  they  will  not  be  able  to  get  them  properly 
unless  they  prepare  them  themselves. 

"Then  it  is  doubtful  whether  they  will  accept  the  smallness 
of  the  doses,  and  wait  the  long  time  they  ought  to  allow  each 
dose  to  act.  Hence,  three  years  from  this  time  must  elapse  be- 
fore they  are  able  to  do  anything  useful  with  them. 


LETTERS   TO   STAPF.  175 

"  So  please  have  patience  with  me  and  excuse  me  for  not  being 
able  to  put  my  book  into  yovir  hands  just  yet,  and  try  and  do  as 
much  good  as  you  can  with  what  you  know  and  have." 

In  the  same  letter,  referring  to  the  action  of  these  remedied, 
he  says:  "Deafness  and  catarrh  are  such  local  affections  that 
no  medicines  can  be  given  with  success  for  them  until  the 
general  health  has  been  perfectly  restored  by  antipsorics." 

Hahnemann,  in  a  letter  dated  January  14,  1828,  also  to  Stapf, 
mentions  the  fact  that  he  is  not  of  a  psoric  temperament.     He 
says: 
' '  Dear  Doctor  : 

"  I  lately  heard  through  Von  Hayn  that  you  had  been  laid  up 
with  sickness,  and  now  I  am  glad  to  see  again  a  letter  in  your 
handwriting.  You  also  are,  alas  !  psoric,  and  my  book,  the  first 
small  part  of  which  will  soon  be  published  by  Arnold,  will,  as  soon 
as  the  second  part  (the  antipsoric  remedies)  is  printed  and  in  your 
hands  (I  sent  the  MSS.  to  the  printer  in  Berlin  on  the  12th  of 
January),  teach  you  how  you  can  gradually  expel  this  insidious 
dyscrasia  from  your  body. 

"I  myself  was  never  psoric,  and  hence,  by  comparing  myself 
with  psoric  persons,  could  best  demonstrate  the  difference.  I 
ought  to  have  done  this  in  my  book,  but,  alas!  I  either  forgot  to 
do  so,  or  probably  did  not  do  it  because  I  did  not  like  to  talk 
about  myself."* 

Hahnemann  also  mentions  this  fact  about  himself  in  the  second 
edition  of  the  "  Chronic  Diseases."  It  may  be  found  as  a  note 
on  page  57  of  the  German  edition  and  on  page  63  of  the  American 
translation. t 

He  says:  "  It  was  easier  for  me  than  for  many  hundred  others 
to  discover  and  discern  the  signs  of  psora,  both  those  still  slum- 
bering and  latent  in  the  interior  and  those  roused  up  out  of  the 
interior  into  serious  chronic  diseases,  by  careful  comparison 
of  the  state  of  health  of  all  affected  with  it  with  myself,  because 
I,  as  is  rarely  the  case,  was  never  psoric,  and  hence,  from  my 
birth  till  now,  when  I  am  in  my  eightieth  year,  I  have  always 
remained  completely  exempt  from  all  the  ailments  (great  and 
small)  described   here  and  further  on,  though  I  am  otherwise 

*Honi.  World,  Vol.  xxiv.,  p.  493.  "Anuals  British  Horn.  Society,"  Vol. 
ii.,  p.  149. 

t"  Hahnemann's  Chronic  Diseases. "  New  York.  Radde.  1845.  P.  63. 


176  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

very  susceptible  to  acute  epidemic  diseases,  and  although  I 
have  undergone  much  mental  labor  and  thousands  of  emotional 
mortifications." 

Another  letter  to  Stapf,  dated  Februiry  23,  1828,   also  relates 
to  the  new  psoric  doctrine:  * 
' '  Dear  Colleague  : 

"I  was  very  sorry  for  you  when  I  first  heard  from  Dr.  Rummel 
the  sad  account  of  the  illness  of  your  wife,  and  I  now  rejoice 
with  you  that  it  has  yielded  so  happily  and  quickly  to  the  true 
healing  art. 

"  This  was  an  example  of  the  by  no  means  rare  explosions 
and  sudden  outbursts  of  the  internal  psora.  These  are  always 
quite  sudden  illnesses,  the  cause  of  which  {catisa  occasionalis):  a 
chill,  a  fright,  a  vexation,  &c.,  is  often  very  insignificant.  They 
only  come  singly.  Therefore  I  consider  all  maladies  that  occur 
epidemically  and  sporadically  as  belonging  to  this  class. 

"  Those  single  outbursts  of  the  internal  latent  psora,  which 
I  have  not  sufficiently  described  in  my  book  (which  may  easily 
happen  in  the  first  edition  of  a  book),  after  their  speedy  defer- 
vescence or  rapid  cure  by  proper  means,  allow  the  previously 
latent  psora  to  return  to  its  latent  state — as  we  often  see  in  the 
case  of  poor  people  that  a  sudden  inflammatory  swelling  in  some 
part,  a  sore  throat,  an  ophthalmia,  an  erysipelas,  or  other  acute 
febrile  disease  (pleurisy,  etc.),  comes  on  in  a  threatening  manner, 
but  if  it  does  not  kill  the  patient,  often  subsides  by  the  help  of 
nature  (frequently  by  the  formation  of  an  abscess),  and  then  the 
stream  that  had  overflowed  its  banks  returns  to  its  bed;  i.  (?.,the 
psora  again  becomes  latent,  but  with  an  increased  disposition  to 
repeat  these  or  similar  explosions. 

"  But  among  the  well-to-do  classes,  who  immediately  resort  to 
the  Allopathic  physician,  such  sudden  illness  generally  goes  on 
to  the  full  development  of  the  psora,  and  to  a  palpable  progress- 
ive chronic  disease. 

"  It  ought  not  to  cause  astonishment  that  for  such  very  acute 
outbursts  of  latent  psora  the  antipsoric  remedies  are  not  suitable, 
therefore,  that  spirit,  vini  sidphuratus  (or  even  Graphites,  which 
is  such  an  excellent  Homoeopathic  remedy  for  erysipelas  of  the 
face)  was  not  suitable  in  the  face-erysipelas  fever  of  your  wife. 

*Hom.  World,  Vol,  xxiv.,  p.  495.   "Annals  Brit.  Honi.  Society,"  Vol.  ii., 
p.  151. 


\ 


LETTERS   TO   STAFF.  1 77 

These  remedies  are  appropriate  for  the  slow,  radical  cure  of  the 
ca7isa  prima  of  the  face-erysipelas.  Now  the  iinantipsoric 
remedies  (like  J^/ius  tox.  in  your  case),  which  correspond  to  the 
present  transient  morbid  picture,  are  the  appropriate  medicines; 
they  can  quickly  quell  the  existing  acute  explosion,  so  that  the 
condition  calms  down  again  into  latent  psora,  to  which  these 
remedies  have  little  or  no  affinity. 

"To  remove  the  tendency  to  such  outbursts  (dangerous  sore 
throat,  pneumonia,  ophthalmia,  typhus  fever,  erysipelas,  etc.); 
that  is,  to  effect  a  radical  cure  of  the  psora,  requires  the  slow 
specific  action  of  the  antipsoric  remedies — in  the  case  of  your 
wife,  among  other  medicines,  also  Gr'aphites,  as  you  must  give 
Sulphur  soon  again. 

"  If  my  discovery  is  well  founded,  as  it  certainly  is,  without 
any  exception,  I  shall  be  curious  to  see  what  the  adherents  ol 
the  Allopathic  school,  who,  up  till  now,  have  boasted  of  being 
sole  proprietors  of  rationality  in  the  medical  art,  and  who  as- 
serted that  they  alone  practiced  and  practice  causal  treatment 
(see  Hufeland)  will  say — they  must  adduce  histar  omnium,  their 
emetics  in  overloaded  stomachs,  which  we  do  not  envy  them. 
With  the  exception  of  the  employment  of  Mercury  in  syphilis, 
what  causal  treatment  in  the  endless  array  of  chronic  diseases 
can  they  lay  claim  to,  seeing  that  they  do  not  know  the  cause? 

"Von  GersdorfF  already  suspected  the  heredity  of  psora,  and 
I  think  I  confuted  him.  Please  to  ask  him  for  me  to  send  you 
copies  of  the  passages  on  the  subject  in  my  letters  to  him.  He 
will  be  happy  to  do  so.     I  do  not  quite  remember  what  I  wrote. 

"I  had  hoped  to  have  seen  you  and  Gross  this  spring,  but  I 
regret  the  weather  will  prevent  Gross  coming.  I  must  hope  for 
another  opportunity. 

"Yours, 

"Sam.  Hahnemann." 

In  connection  with  the  psora  theory  is  the  following  opinion 
expressed  by  Hahnemann  regarding  vaccination.  In  writing  to 
Dr.  Schreeter,  of  Lemberg,  on  December  19,  1831,  he  says:* 
"In  order  to  provide  the  dear  little  Patty  with  the  protective 
cow  pox,  the  safest  plan  would  certainly  be  to  obtain  the  lymph 
direct  from  the  cow;  but  if  this  cannot  be  done  (children  are  also 

*Stapf's  "Archiv.,  "  Vol.  xxiii.,  pt.  3,  p.  103.  Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol. 
vi.,  p.  415. 


1 78  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

made  more  ill  by  it,  than  from  the  matter  obtained  from  human 
beings),  I  would  advise  you  to  inoculate  another  child  with  the 
protective  pox,  and  as  soon  as  slight  redness  of  the  punctures 
shows  it  has  taken,  I  would  immediately  for  two  successive  days 
give  Sulphur  1-30,  and  inoculate  your  child  from  the  pock  that 
it  produced.  As  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  ascertain,  a  child 
cannot  communicate  psora  whilst  under  the  action  of  Sulphur.  " 
Dr.  Schreeter  in  a  note  to  this  letter  says  that  he  has  found 
this  advice  to  be  true  and  has  acted  upon  it  in  vaccination  with 
good  results. 


CHAPTER  XXXV. 

EXISTENCE  OF    THE    ITCH-INSECT    KNOWN   TO    HAHNEMANN. 
LETTER    ON    BIRTHDAY    TO   STAFF. 

Hahnemann' shook  on  the  cause  and  proper  treatment  of  chronic 
diseases  has  been  a  source  of  much  discussion  and  controversy 
among  the  members  of  the  Homoeopathic  school,  and  of  much 
ridicule  from  the  members  of  the  self  called  rational,  or  Allo- 
pathic school.  The  book  is  readily  to  be  procured.  To  an  un- 
biased mind  it  is  evident  that  the  term  itch  was  used  to  designate 
all  sorts  of  diseases  of  the  skin. 

Again,  it  has  been  said  that  Hahnemann  did  not  know  that 
there  was  an  acarus  saibei,  or  itch-insect.  The  truth  is,  he  did 
know  all  about  it  years  before  he  propounded  his  theory  of 
chronic  disease. 

Ameke  says:  *" Did  Hahnemann  know  the  existence  of  the 
itch-insect,  and  at  what  period  did  he  become  acquainted  with 
it?  In  his  translation  of  "Monro's  Materia  Medica,"  1791, 
Hahnemann  says  in  a  foot-note  (11,  49):  'If,  in  a  recent  case  of 
itch,  we  make  the  patient  wash  himself  several  times  daily  with 
a  saturated  solution  of  sulphuretted  hydrogen,  and  get  his  linen 
dipped  in  the  same  solution,  the  affection  disappears  in  a  few 
days  and  does  not  return  except  with  reinfection.  But  would 
it  not  return  if  it  was  caused  by  acridity  of  the  humors?  I 
have  often  observed  this,  and  agree  with  those  who  attribute  the 
disease  to  a  living  cause.  All  insects  (among  which  the  itch- 
mite  was  at  that  time  included)  and  worms  are  killed  by  sul- 
phuretted hydrogen.' 

*Ameke.   "History  of  Homoeopathy,"  p.  72. 


ITCH    INSECT    KNOWN    TO    HAHNEMANN  1 79 

"Further  on  in  this  work  in  another  note  (ir,  441)  he  main- 
tains that  itch  is  a  'living  eruption.'  " 

In  a  German  daily  newspaper,  called  The  Advertiser  {Der  An- 
zeiger,  ein  Tageblatt  zzmi  Behuf  der  Jiistiz,  der  Polizei  jmd  aller 
burgerlichen  Gewerbe),  of  July  30  and  31,  1792,  appeared  the 
following  article,  signed  only  by  the  initial  "B:"* 

"The  itch  itself  does  not  consist  of  emanations  or  of  con- 
genital or  acquired  acridites,  of  a  salt  or  acid  character  of  the 
blood,  but  it  is  derived  from  small  living  insects  or  mites,  which 
take  up  their  abode  in  our  bodies  beneath  the  epidermis,  grow 
there  and  increase  largely,  and  by  their  irritation  or  their  creep- 
ing about  cause  an  itching;  and  owing  to  the  affiux  of  humors 
thereby  produced  give  rise  to  a  multitude  of  vesicles,  which,  on 
being  rubbed,  or  when  the  thin,  watery  fluid  they  contain  has 
evaporated  become  covered  with  scabs.  This  is  not  an  opinion 
adopted  in  order  to  get  rid  of  a  difficulty,  but  it  is  based  on  ex- 
perience. 

"August  Hauptman,  Bonomo,  Schwiebe,  and  other  trustworthy 
men,  have  frequently  investigated  the  matter  at  various  seasons 
of  the  year,  in  individuals  of  different  ages  and  sexes,  who  have 
been  laboring  under  itch,  and  have  found  these  little  animals 
in  the  skin  itself,  in  the  folds  of  the  skin,  but  especially  in  the 
border  surrounding  the  vesicles. 

"They  have  extracted  them,  examined  them  under  the  micro- 
scope, made  drawings  of  them,  and  observed  how  they  lay  their 
eggs,  increase  rapidly  and  enormously,  and  have  found  that  they 
can  live  several  days  out  of  the  human  body." 

The  mode  of  infection  is  also  described,  and  the  use  of  Sulphur 
a  teaspoonful  morning  and  evening,  as  a  cure. 

Immediately  after  this  is  the  following:  "Addendum," 
by  Hahnemann:  "The  cause  of  itch  given  above  is  the  only 
true  one,  the  only  one  that  is  founded  upon  experience.  These 
exceedingly  small  animals  are  a  kind  of  mite.  Wichmann  has 
given  a  drawing  of  them;  Dover,  Legazi  and  others  have  ob- 
served them.  lyinnseus,  however,  thinks  that  the  dry  itch  has 
a  different  variety  of  mite  from  that  attending  the  moist  itch. 

"The  itch  attacks  most  readily  and  most  virulently  persons  in 
whom  the  cutaneous  transpiration  is  scanty  or  weakened,  who 
lead  a  sedentary  life;  also  delicate  individuals,  who  have  been 

*Hirschel's  Horn.  Klinik,  Sept.  i,  1863.     Brit.  Jl.  Horn.,  Vol.  xxi,  p.  670. 


l8o  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

weakened  b}-  other  diseases,  such  as  fevers,  etc.,  or  by  residence 
in  impure  air. 

"The  mode  of  treatment  described  above  is  also  right  and  suc- 
cessful, except  that  the  continued  use  of  Flowers  of  Sulphur  has 
a  tendency  to  cause  tenesmus  and  hemorrhoids.  Only  external 
anti-scabious  remedies  are  required,  and  in  very  weakly  subjects, 
internal,  strengthening  medicines,  such  as  Chhia,  wine,  steel 
filings. 

''Sulphur  ointmeyit  has  the  common  but  unfounded  reputation 
of  driving  the  itch  back  into  the  system.  This  prejudice  will, 
however,  be  removed  if  instead  of  ointment  we  employ  only  a 
lotion,  which  eradicates  the  itch  much  more  effectually  and  kills 
the  small  insects  in  the  skin  in  a  few  days.  Take  half  an  ounce 
of  (Hahnemann's) chalk-like  Liver  of  Sulphur,  in  powder  (every 
chemist  knows  how  to  prepare  it  with  equal  parts  of  oyster  shells 
and  Sulphur  heated  to  redness),  and  the  same  quantity  of  Cream 
of  Tartar,  put  both  into  a  glass  bottle,  pour  two  pounds  of  cold 
water  on  them,  and  shake  a  few  times.  With  the  clear  water 
that  appears  when  the  mixture  settles  the  patient  is  to  wash 
himself  three  times  a  day  on  all  the  spots  affected  with  the  itch. 

"A  recent  case  of  itch  under  this  treatment  disappears  with- 
out the  least  bad  consequences  in  the  course  of  six  or  seven  days, 
a  more  severe  case  in  fourteen  days,  and  the  most  obstinate  case 
in  three  weeks. 

"This  remedy  has  this  advantage,  that  having  a  very  penetrat- 
ing odor  the  itch  mites  in  the  skin  and  clothes  are  killed  by  the 
mere  exhalation  from  the  parts  washed,  and  then  all  danger  of 
reinfection  is  avoided. 

"  In  orphan  asylums  there  is  no  remedy  to  be  compared  with 
it,  because  it  protects  beds,  rooms  and  furniture,  by  its  strong 
smell,  from  becoming  a  harbor  for  the  itch-mites,  and  thus  eradi- 
cates in  a  short  time,  in  such  houses,  this  pest,  otherwise  so 
difficult  to  be  got  rid  of.  This  the  Sulphur  ointment  can  hardly 
effect.  Cleanliness,  fresh  air  and  wholesome  diet  must  be  im- 
peratively enjoined  on  the  patient. 

"Dr.  Samuel  Hahnemann." 

Volume  I  of  the  "  Chronic  Diseases"  is  devoted  to  the  follow- 
ing essays:  On  the  Nature  of  Chronic  Diseases;  on  Sycosis; 
Syphilis;  Psora.     Directions  are  also  given  for  the  preparation  of 


LETTER    ON    BIRTHDAY    TO    STAFF.  l8l 

Homoeopathic  medicines.     The  remaining  three  volumes  are  de- 
voted to  the  provings  of  the  antipsoric  remedies. 

As  has  been  stated,  the  first  edition  of  the  ' '  Chronic  Diseases ' ' 
was  published  in  1828-30  in  four  volumes. 

A  second  edition  was  issued  from  1835-39,  ^^  five  volumes,  by 
Schaub,  at  Dusseldorf.  Only  two  German  editions  were  ever 
published.  In  1832  the  book  was  translated  into  French  by 
Jourdan  and  published  in  Paris.  There  were  also  two  other 
French  editions  published.  Geddes  M.  Scott,  of  Glasgow,  in 
1842,  published  an  English  translation.  In  1849  it  was  published 
in  Madrid  in  Spanish.  In  1846  an  English  translation  was  made 
by  Dr.  C  J.  Hempel,  from  the  second  edition,  and  published  in 
five  volumes  by  Radde,  in  New  York.  A  new  translation  is 
now  (1894)  being  made  by  Rev.  L,.  H.  Tafel,  under  the  auspices 
of  Messrs.  Boericke  &  Tafel. 

On  February  23,  1828,  Hahnemann,  in  a  letter  to  Stapf,  com- 
plains of  the  delay  of  Arnold,  his  old  publisher,  in  printing  the 
book  on  chronic  diseases,  as  follows:* 

"It  is  a  pity  that  the  printing  of  this  second  part  does  not  go 

on  more  quickly,  in  spite  of  my  earnest  request.     Besides  the 

.  commencement  (directions  for  preparing  the  antipsoric  medicine) 

which  Gross  got  from  me,  and  will  send  to  you,  I  have  only  as 

yet  received  three  proof  sheets  from  the  printer." 

Dr.  Dudgeon  says  of  this  letter:  "This  does  not  seem  to  have 
been  the  only  time  Hahnemann  had  to  complain  of  the  dilatori- 
ness  of  his  publisher,  for  in  a  note  to  the  first  page  of  the  preface 
to  the  second  edition  of  the  third  part  of  his  "Chronic  Dis- 
eases," published  in  1837,  he  complains  that  Arnold  took  two 
whole  years  to  set  up  thirty  six  sheets  of  the  two  first  parts  of 
the  same  edition.  He  evidently  lost  patience  with  Arnold,  or 
perhaps  Arnold  then  failed,  as  we  learn  he  did  in  one  of  the 
subsequent  letters,  for  the  subsequent  parts  of  the  '  Chronic 
Diseases'  were   published  by  Schaub,  of  Dusseldorf." 

On  his  birthday  Hahnemann  writes  to  his  old  pupil  Stapf  the 
following  kindly  letter:  f 

"  Coethen,  April  10,  1828. 
' '  Dear  Colleague  : 

"I  thank  you  for  your  well-meant,  good  wishes  on   the  occa- 

*Hom.  World,  Vol.  xxiv,  p.  496. 

\Hom.  World,  Vol.  xxiv,  p.  500.  "Annals  Brit.  Horn.  Society,"  Vol.  ii, 
P-  249- 


1 82  LIFE   OF   HAHNEMANN. 

sion  of  my  seventy  fourth  birthday,  and  at  the  same  time  I  this 
day  have  a  lively  pleasure  in  the  action  and  zealous  help  which 
your  unwearying  enthusiasm  has  up  till  now  contributed  to  the 
development  and  establishment  of  the  beneficent  art,  which  I 
can  truly  say  was  revealed  to  me  by  God,  and  I  can  acknowledge 
it  with  emotion  and  thankfulness. 

"I  can  with  confidence  affirm  that  you  also  share  this  beauti- 
ful self-consciousness,  and  that  the  sublime  art  itself  will  cheer 
and  render  happy  the  days  of  the  lives  of  yourself  and  your  dear 
family. 

"Is  there  any  greater  happiness  than  in  doing  good? 

"When,  too,  we  leave  this  earth  the  great,  the  only,  the  in- 
finite Being,  who  promotes  the  happiness  of  all  creatures,  will 
direct  us  how  to  come  nearer  to  His  perfection  and  blessedness  by 
further  acts  of  beneficence,  and  how  to  become  more  like  Him 
through  all  .eternity. 

"I  must  not  write  more  to-day,  but  I  hope  to  see  you  very 
soon  here,  in  the  company  of  your  two  dear  ones,  and  with  the 
most  cordial  greeting  from  my  family,  I  am,  yours  very  truly, 

"Samuel  Hahnemann." 


CHAPTER  XXXVI. 

FIRST  METHOD  OF  PREPARING    HOMCEOPATHIC   MEDICINE — FIRST 

POCKET  CASES — KORSAKOFF  ON  THE  USE  OF  GLASS 

VIALS — HAHNEMANN'S  OPINION  REGARDING 

THE  PRACTICE  OF  MEDICINE — LETTER 

TO  DR.  EHRHARDT. 

Up  to  the  year  1821,  Hahnemann  had  made  his  triturations 
in  porcelain  mortars  with  sugar  of  milk,  but  the  capsules  for  the 
patient  he  filled  with  pulverized  oyster  shell,  adding  to  it  the 
necessary  amount  of  the  trituration.  x\t  that  time  pure  white 
milk  sugar  was  an  expensive  and  rare  article,  for  its  chief  source 
of  supply,  Switzerland,  made  and  exported  only  small  amounts. 
It  became  the  first  care  of  our  people  at  Leipsic  to  secure  it  in 
larger  amounts  and  of  better  quality,  for,  like  Hahnemann,  they 
were  obliged  to  prepare  all  their  medicines.  The  porcelain  mor- 
tars used  were  soon  replaced  by  better  ones  of  marble.     About 


FIRST    HOMCEOPATHIC    PREPARATIONS.  1 83 

this  time  Hofrath  Henecke,  of  Gotha,  the  editor  of  Wio.  Reichan- 
zeiger,  and  a  good  friend  of  Hahnemann,  suggested  Homoeopathic 
family  medicine  cases. 

At  first  there  was  also  a  scarcity  of  proper  glassware  for  the 
very  tiny  vials.  Goose  quills  had  been  commonly  used  in  pri- 
vate practice  to  contain  the  medicines.  Bohemia  soon  supplied 
its  glass.  From  the  globules  all  starch  was  removed  to  prevent 
discoloration  and  crumbling,  and  they  were  made  of  different 
sizes.  As  early  as  1828,  fine  pocket  cases  were  for  sale,  chiefly 
made  by  L,appe,  an  apothecary  of  Neudietendorf,  of  whom 
Hahnemann  was  in  the  habit  of  ordering  several  remedies. 
Christian  Ernest  Otto,  of  Roetha,  near  Leipsic,  was  the  first  to 
establish  a  regular  Homceopathic  pharmacy.  * 

In  Xho^  Archives  of  Homceopathic  Medicine  for  1829,  M.  Korsa- 
koff, a  Russian  gentleman,  addressed  a  letter  to  Hahnemann  in 
which  he  recommends  the  use  of  little  tubes  or  vials,  for  holding 
the  Homoeopathic  globules.  He  suggests  that  the  pills  should 
be  placed  in  the  vial  and  two  or  three  drops  of  the  medicinal  di- 
lution be  poured  over  them  and  that  they  then  be  shaken 
thoroughly. 

Hahnemann  in  an  answer  published  in  the  same  journal,  ap- 
proves of  this  method,  but  advises  that  the  pills  be  not  shaken, 
but  stirred  with  a  glass  pin  until  dried,  adding  that  the  evapor- 
ation will  not  effect  the  medicinal  powers.  This  answer  can  also 
be  found  in  the  "  Lesser  Writings.  " 

Dudgeon  says  :  "  Korsakoff  was  the  real  original  inventor  of 
the  high  potencies.  "  f 

Hahnemann  said  that  his  experiments  were  of  great  value  as 
illustrating  the  extreme  divisibility  to  which  the  Homoeopathic 
medicines  could  be  brought,  but  advised  some  limit.  In  a  letter 
to  Dr.  Schreeter,  dated  September  13,  1829,  he  says  •.%  "  There 
must  be  some  limit  to  the  thing,  it  cannot  go  on  to  infinity.  By 
laying  it  down  as  a  rule  that  all  Homoeopathic  medicines  be  di- 
luted and  potentized  up  to  thirty,  we  have  a  uniform  mode  of 
procedure  in  the  treatment  of  all    Homoeopathists,    and    when 

*  Translated  by  Dr.  H.  R.  Arudt  from  Kleinert's  "  Geschichte  der  Ho- 
moopathie, "  p.  155.  Med.  Counselor,  Vol.  xi.,  p.  312. 

t  Dudgeon's  "Lectures  on  Homoeopathy,  "  p.  351.  Archiv  fur  die  horn. 
Heilkunst,  Vol.  viii,  pt.  2,  p.  161.      "  Desser  Writings,  "  New  York,  p.  735. 

%  British  Journal  of  Homoeopathy,  Vol.  v.,  p.  398.  Dudgeon's  translation 
of   "Organon,"  1893,  p.  303. 


184  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

they  describe  a  cure  we  can  repeat  it  as  they  do,  and  we  operate 
with  the  same  tools.  " 

Dudgeon  says  that  the  introduction  of  sugar  globules  into 
Homoeopathic  practice  by  Hahnemann  dates  from  about  the 
year  1813,  and  refers  to  a  note  made  by  Hahnemann  to  para- 
graph 288  of  the  fifth  edition  of  the  "  Organon,  "  viz:  *  "A  glo- 
bule impregnated  with  the  thirtieth  potentized  dilution  and  then 
dried,  retains  for  this  purpose  all  its  power  undiminished  for  at 
least  eighteen  or  twenty  years  (my  experience  extends  that 
length  of  time,)  even  though  the  vial  be  opened  a  thousand 
times  during  that  period,  if  it  be  but  protected  from  the  heat 
and  sun's  light.  " 

Some  notion  of  Hahnemann's  ideas  regarding  the  practice  of 
medicine  at  this  period  of  his  life  may  be  obtained  from  the  fol- 
lowing letter  to  Dr.  Schreeter  :  f 

"  Coethen,  June  ip,  1826. 
"  Dear  Colleague : 

"  I  thank  you,  your  dear  sister  and  your  friends  for  your  re- 
membrance of  my  birthday.  I  see  from  that  the  interest  you 
take  in  me  and  in  our  good  cause.  I  thank  you  also  for  your 
news  about  yourself  and  your  pleasing  family  affairs.  I  learned 
from  that  your  juvenile  age,  and  can  now  easily  understand  how 
it  is  that  you  have  gone  on  so  rapidly  with  the  antipsoric  treat- 
ment. 

"  Your  want  of  success  in  the  cases  you  have  recorded  is  cer- 
tainly owing  to  the  rapid  change  of  the  remedies,  the  often  un- 
fitting dynamization  and  dilution  and  the  too  large  doses. 
Once  you  have  spoilt  matters  with  these  three  faults  for  about 
four  weeks,  it  is  very  difficult  to  set  them  right  again.  My  ad- 
vice is  that  you  abide  rigorously  by  the  precepts  contained  in 
my  book  on  "  Chronic  Diseases  ;  "  and,  if  possible,  go  still  fur- 
ther than  I  have  done,  in  allowing  a  still  longer  period  for  the 
antipsoric  remedies  to  exhaust  their  action,  in  administering 
still  smaller  doses  than  I  have  advi.sed,  and  in  dynamising  all 
antipsoric  medicines  up  to  30.  ( You  appear  not  to  possess 
them  all  yet.) 


^ 


■'^Dudgeon's  "  Organon,  "  p.  197. 

^  British  Journal  of  Homoeopathy,  Vo\.   v,  p.  397.     Stapf  s  yi?;rA/r',  Vol. 
xxiii.,  pt.  2,  p.  179. 


LETTiiR   TO    DR.    EHRHARDT.  185 

"You  should  also,  seeing  that  you  can  have  no  great  need  of 
mone}',  living  with  your  parents,  make  your  visits  to  your 
patients  rarer;  keep  up  your  dignity,  and  more  frequently  with- 
draw your  attendance  on  patients  who  do  not  show  sufiicient 
confidence  in  you,  if  they  do  not  show  more  respect  for  you  and 
your  art. 

"You  should  never  allow  yourself  to  be  dismissed,  but  when- 
ever a  patient  does  not  do  exactly  as  you  desire,  or  ceases  to  talk 
in  becoming  terms,  you  should  at  once  take  leave  of  him;  '  You 
don't  act  as  I  wish,  but  do  so  and  so  against  my  orders;  employ 
whom  you  will,  I  will  have  nothing  more  to  do  with  you;'  and 
this  do  to  one  after  another;  to  all  who  even  speak  of  Homoe- 
opathy in  a  doubting  tone,  or  do  anything  else  unbecoming,  be 
off  at  once.  This  would  at  first  deprive  you  of  a  few  patients 
who  are  of  no  importance,  but  in  course  of  time,  if  you  persist 
in  your  authoritative  manner,  you  will  be  respected  and  sought 
after,  and  none  will  dare  to  use  any  liberties  with  you.  It  is 
better  to  be  without  patients,  and  devote  yourself  to  study,  keep- 
ing up  your  dignity,  than  to  stand  in  such  a  relation  with 
patients. 

"  The  latter  should  thank  God  if  you  deign  to  accept  them 
and  treat  them  on  your  excellent  system,  and  they  must  be  con- 
tent to  be  reproached  by  you  for  the  senseless  manner  in  which 
they  had  allowed  themselves  to  be  injured  by  the  Allopaths,  so 
that  you  could  scarcely  hope  to  effect  a  cure  of  such  ruined  con- 
stitutions. If  any  of  your  patients  is  not  entirely  submissive 
dismiss  him  summarily,  even  though  by  such  conduct  you  should 
only  retain  two,  or  one  single  patient,  or  should  be  left  without 
any.  They  would  return  by  degrees,  with  more  respect,  sub- 
missiveness  and  humility,  and  more  disposed  to  pay  well. 

"Do  you  not  make  the  patient  affected  with  chronic  diseases, 
who  can  walk,  come  to  j-our  house?  Who  could  submit  to  the 
degradation  of  visiting  a  patient  who  had  gone  out  in  the  mean- 
time and  allowed  you  to  come  in  vain?  The  chronic  patients 
you  must  make  visit  you,  even  the  highest  among  them;  and  if 
they  won't  come,  let  them  stay  away.  You  must  take  a  higher 
standing.  Rather  suffer  penury,  which  you  are  not  likely  to  do, 
than  abate  one  jot  of  your  own  dignity,  or  that  of  the  art  you 
practice."  ^  >i<  ^  >i<  ^  * 

In  another  letter  written   later  in   the  same  year,  to  one  Dr. 


l86  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

Ehrhardt,  of  Merseberg,  Hahnemann  says:  *"  You  are  much  too 
timid,  much  too  obsequious  to  3'our  patients,  like  the  Allopaths, 
who  are  glad  if  they  can  only  keep  their  patients  as  their  clients. 
It  should  not  be  so.  If  you  are  perfectly  conversant  with  your 
art  you  must  command  absolutely — not  allow  your  patient  to 
make  conditions. 

"He  must  obey  you,  not  you  him.  To  this  end,  in  order  that 
you  may  be  perfectly  free,  you  must  limit  your  expenses  at  first, 
in  order  that  you  may  not  experience  want,  even  though  but  few 
patients  should  seek  your  advice.  You  will  be  able  to  cure 
those  few  patients  all  the  better  and  more  certainly  if  you  devote 
the  necessary  care  to  their  cases,  and  you  will  have  time  for 
study.     For  we  Homoeopathists  can  not  go  too  deep  into  our  art. 

"But  if  we  have  made  ourselves  masters  of  it,  then  may,  then 
must  we,  indeed,  comport  ourselves  with  dignity.  In  order  to 
spare  our  precious  time  and  to  keep  up  our  dignity  we  must 
not  pay  visits  to  anj^  patient  with  a  chronic  disease,  were  he 
even  a  prince,  if  he  is  able  to  come  to  us.  We  must  only  visit 
acute  cases  and  such  as  are  confined  to  bed.  Those  who  are 
able  to  go  about,  but  will  not  come  to  your  house  for  advice, 
may  stay  away,  it  must  not  be  otherwise.  Anything  like  run- 
ning after  patients,  as  the  Allopaths  do,  is  degrading.  You  go 
to  visit  your  patient,  the  servant  maid  tells  you  he  is  not  at  home, 
he  is  at  the  theatre,  has  gone  out  for  a  drive,  etc.  Pah  !  You 
must  go  on  to  a  second  or  a  third,  like  an  Allopath  or  a  beggar. 
Fie  on  it ! 

"Further,  every  time  the  patient  comes  to  see  you,  you  must 
make  him  pay  you  your  fee  for  your  trouble  at  once;  it  may  be 
one  or  two  shillings  only  from  poor  people,  from  rich  ones  as 
many  crowns.  If  you  make  that  arrangement  and  everyone 
knows  of  it,  then  your  patient  will  always  have  his  money  with 
him;  and  if  he  does  not  come  any  more  he  may  stay  away.  If, 
however,  he  have  not  got  the  money  with  him  you  may  put  off 
the  consultation  for  an  hour  or  two,  so  as  to  give  him  time  to  go 
and  get  it  and  bring  you  the  remuneration  for  your  trouble. 

"  Money  gives  courage,  even  though  it  be  not  a  large  sum;  if 
I  have  got  what  is  due  in  my  pocket,  then  I  feel  that  I  am  not 
working  for  nothing,  that  I  am  not  dependent  on  every  one's 

favor,  and  fearful  lest  I  may  not  be  paid.    How  does  Mr. , 

the  privy  councillor  pay  you  ?  I  imagine  the  greater  part  ot 
your  fees  is  on  credit,  and  hereafter  when  you  remind  him  of 

*Brit.  Jl.  Horn.,  Vol.  xi.,  p.  70.     Allg.  Hotn.  Zeitung,  Vol.  xliv.,  p.  38. 


LETTER   TO   DR.    EHRHARDT.  1 87 

payment,  you  will  get  no  very  kind  looks,  some  reproaches,  and 
probabl}^  no  payment. 

"Under  such  circumstances  it  is  impossible  to  be  in  good 
spirits.  After  the  treatment  is  over  he  will  have  forgotten 
all  the  trouble  you  have  had  with  him.  The  world  is  ungrate- 
ful !  Rich  patients  also  should  pay  at  each  consultation  im- 
mediately, or  once  a  month;  otherwise  they  might  go  away  with- 
out paying.  If  you  do  not  manage  matters  in  this  way,  then 
you  will  be  worse  off  than  the  most  abject  wretch.  I  said  that 
you  were  timid.  Running  about  paying  visits  takes  away  one's 
courage  and  makes  one  timid. 

"  From  timidity,  for  fear  you  should  lose  him,  you  have  given 

Mr.  far  too  much  medicine,  and  that  far  too  frequently, 

thereby  you  do  not  improve  him,  you  make  him  worse,  you  will 
never  succeed  in  retaining  this  patient.  He  cannot  be  restored 
quickly,  he  must  have  patience  for  years  to  come,  and  that  he 
will  not  have,  worried,  tormented  and  rendered  impatient,  as  he 
has  been  by  Allopaths  and  apothecaries. 

"It  is  to  be  supposed  that  Homoeopathy  can  perform  miracles, 
but  it  cannot  do  that,  least  of  all  where  the  patient  is  not  quite  a 
convert  to  our  system,  nor  so  conversant  with  it  as  to  presume 
that  beyond  our  art  there  is  no  cure  for  him.  Entirely  unac- 
quainted as  this  gentleman  is  with  our  art,  he  will  be  unable  to 
withstand  the  persuasions  of  his  Allopathic  friends  to  give  up, 
and  to  allow  himself  to  be  done  to  death  in  some  bathing  place 
by  doctors  of  the  old  school. 

"  I  tell  you  again  you  will  not  be  able  to  prevent  this.  Even 
had  he  implicit  confidence,  which  he  has  not,  you  would  not  be 
able  to  restore  him  in  less  than  a  year.  So  I  advise  you  to 
get  rid  of  him  and  not  to  take  any  more  such  difl&cult  cases 
among  persons  of  rank  until  you  can  assert  your  dignity  and 
ensure  obedience  to  your  absolute  commands,  which  must  be  un- 
questioningly  obeyed.  So  the  gentleman  wants  to  make  it  a  con- 
dition that  he  shall  drink  wine  and  coffee!  For  God's  sake  let 
him  take  himself  off,  he  will  do  you  no  credit ! 

"All  my  patients  of  rank  affected  with  chronic  diseases  must 
have   read    the    'Organon'      and    Boenninghausen's      'Homoe- 
opathy,' otherwise  I  will  not  undertake  their  treatment. 
"Yours  sincerely, 

' '  Samuel  Hahnemann. 

"  Coethen,  August  24.,  18 2 p." 


l88  LIFE    OF   HAHNEMANN. 


CHAPTER  XXXVII. 


FIFTIETH    FEST-JUBILEE — LETTERS  TO  RUMMEL — HAHNEMANN'S 
PORTRAITS. 

The  fiftieth  anniversary  of  Hahnemann's  graduation  in  medi- 
cine at  the  University  of  Erlangen  was  now  approaching.  For 
half  a  century  he  had  been  devoting  his  life  and  talents  to  the 
good  of  suffering  humanity,  and  his  followers  in  all  parts  of  the 
world  determined  to  celebrate  in  a  proper  manner  this  day  of 
honor  to  the  beneficent  old  man.  For  several  months  before 
his  friends  had  been  preparing  this  surprise.  Contributions  had 
been  solicited,  letters  written  to  Homoeopaths  in  other  countries, 
and  every  effort  made  to  fittingly  commemorate  the  event. 

Previous  to  this  time  there  had  been  no  very  satisfactory  pic- 
tures of  Hahnemann.  The  editions  of  "  The  Organon  "  of  1819, 
1824  and  1829  each  contained  a  half  length  engraving,  drawn 
by  Junge  and  engraved  by  Stolzel,  in  which  he  is  represented 
sitting  with  a  pen  in  hand. 

Callisen  in  his  Lexicon*  mentions  these  pictures,  and  a  quarto 
lithograph  by  Fr.  Jos.  V.  A.  Broussais,  in  Froriep's  Notiz.  aus 
der  Natur  U7id  Heilkunst,  vol.  iv.,  1825,  No.  12.  (No.  78.)  It  is 
probable  that  there  were  no  other  pictures  of  the  reformer. 

While  planning  the  Fest-Jubilee  his  friends  wished  a  reliable 
portrait  and  medal  of  himself  to  present  to  him  upon  that  occa- 
sion, and  the  difficulty  was  to  get  him  to  sit  without  letting  him 
suspect  the  object.  Dr.  Rummel  was  intrusted  with  this  task, 
and  he  succeeded  in  representing  to  him  that  the  portraits 
hitherto  published  of  him  were  incorrect  and  that  some  of  his 
admirers  wished  greatly  to  have  a  portrait  of  him  that  would  be 
a  good  likeness. 

If  the  picture  from  which  the  former  engraving  had  been  taken 
was  a  good  likeness  (they  knew  it  was  not),  a  new  engraving 
might  be  taken  from  it;  but  if  it  was  not,  he  was  told  that  funds 
for  a  new  portrait  had  already  been  subscribed,  and  he  was  re- 
quested to  give  sittings  to  their  artist.  A  similar  story  was  in- 
vented in  reference  to  the  medal. 


Medicinisches  vSchriftsteller-Lexicou."     Copenhagen,  1831. 


FIFTIETH   FEST-JUBILEE.  1 89 

The  celebrated  portrait  painter  Schoppe  was  engaged  for  the 
painting,  and  a  young  medallist  named  Dietrich  was  requested 
to  execute  the  medal. 

The  letters  which  follow  are  from  Hahnemann  to  Rummel 
upon  this  subject,  and  are  interesting  exponents  of  Hahne- 
mann's mind  about  the  matter.  Rummel  published  them  in  1852 
in  the  Zeitung,  and  they  were  translated  into  the  British  Journal 
of  Homoeopathy .  * 

*'  Dear  Colleague: 

"  Your  united  desire  to  possess  a  counterfeit  resemblance  of  my 
face  which  shall  be  a  better  likeness  than  the  copper-plate  and 
lithographic  engravings  that  have  hitherto  appeared  does 
honor  to  your  partiality  towards  me,  and  cannot  be  otherwise 
than  flattering  to  me,  but  it  cannot  be  fulfilled  by  your  proposi- 
tion; what  you  miss  in  the  copy  is  absent  also  in  the  painting, 
sufficient  resemblance.  I  am  not  indeed  as  vain  as  Alexander, 
the  conqueror  of  the  world,  qtd  7iec pingi,  7iisi  ab  Apelle,  necfingt 
volebat  nisi  a  Praxitele,  but  I  have  no  desire  to  see  another  copy 
made  of  the  unlike  oil  painting.  For  in  that  case  the  public 
would  be  made  to  believe  that  my  face  must  be  just  as  the  second 
copy  shall  represent  it  to  be. 

"  Should  I  live,  and  should  some  good  portrait  painter  come 
in  my  way,  I  would  get  my  likeness  taken  and  that  in  a  larger 
size  than  the  last,  as  you  desire;  and  if  the  engraver  or  lithogra- 
pher would,  before  publishing  his  work,  take  a  look  at  me  him- 
self, I  believe  a  good  likeness  might  be  the  result.  But  should 
this  not  happen,  then  let  us  leave  things  as  they  are,  let  me  only 
be  handed  down  to  posterity  in  the  spiritual  features  of  the  inner 
man  which  are  not  indistinctly  portrayed  in  what  I  have  written. 
My  vanity  does  not  go  beyond  this.  It  will  be  very  agreeable 
to  me  to  receive  your  visit,  only  I  beg  of  you  to  let  me  know 
when  you  will  come,  some  little  time  beforehand. 

"  The  new  number  of  the  Archiv,  is  just  what  I  could  wish. 
Your  reply  to  Wedekind  and  Hentschel  is  in  what  I  consider  an 
appropriate  style,  not  so  mild,  and,  if  I  may  be  allowed  the  ex- 
pression, so  humble  and  deferential  as  are  some  of  the  older 
criticisms  in  the  Archiv,  but  you  say  in  a  manly  way  to   f  heir 

*Allg.  Ham.  Zeit.,  Vol.  xliv.,  p.  3.     (July  26,  1852.)      Brit.  Jour.  Horn. 
Vol.  xi.,  p.  62. 


igO  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

face  and   without  sparing  them  what  they  ought  to   hear  from 
the  men  who  are  assured  of  the  goodness  of  their  cause. 

"Gross's  commencement  of  the  aggressive  likewise  gives  me 
much  pleasure;  I  have  enjoyed  it. 

"No  more  to-day,  as  the  post  hour  is  come. 

"  Yours  sincerely, 

"Sam.  Hahnemann." 
"  Coeiheti,  igth  Feb'y,  iS2p.'" 


"  CoETHEN,  2d  April,  1829. 
''Dear  Colleague  : 

"  Young  Dietrich  has  had  two  afternoon  sittings  for  the  pur- 
pose of  modelling  me,  and  the  head  seems  to  be  getting  verj^ 
like.  He  is  a  clever  and  modest  young  man.  You  are  such  a 
good  observer  of  yourself  that  you  will  pardon  me  for  giving 
you  some  advice  for  the  purpose  of  rendering  your  observations 
somewhat  more  certain  and  instructive.* 

"  I  beg  you  will  take  these  corrections  in  good  part.  He  who 
can  do  much,  of  him  will  enough  be  expected. 

"  In  that  respect  those  are  better  off  who  can  do  little  or  noth- 
ing; with  that  you  may  console  yourself.  Have  you  still  many 
epidemic  diseases  in  your  neighborhood  ?  Does  their  treatment 
go  on  well  ?  Intermittent  fevers  are  also  met  with  in  this  place, 
but  I  see  but  few  of  them.  Bellad.  and  Antim.  crudem  2  were 
sufficient. 

"  Yours  sincerely, 

"Sam.  Hahnemann. 

"You  will  oblige  me  if  you  will  kindly  send  me  when  you 
have  an  opportunity  about  a  drachm  of  Regichis  antimonii.  I 
must  have  the  metal  among  my  medicines,  and  am  not  content 
with  the  Sulphuret  and  Tartrate  of  Antimony.''' 

"  Coethen,  i6th  April,  1S29. 
''Dear  Colleagtie : 

"  I  thank  you  from  my  heart  for  your  good  and  kindly  meant 
wishes  on  the  occurrence  of  the  seventy-fifth  anniversary  of  my 
birthday;   may  the  Supreme  Being  preserve  you  also  in  good 

^Here  follows  the  citatiou  of  certain  symptoms,  with  queries  to  make 
them  more  clear. 


FIFTIETH    PEST-JUBILEE.  IQt 

health  for  the  benefit  of  our  art  and  of  your  dear  family.  *  *  * 
The  first  attacks  of  the  intermittent  fever  that  at  present  prevails 
in  your  neighborhood,  and  throughout  a  great  extent  of  the  sur- 
rounding country,  may  certainly  have  a  certain  epidemic  exciting 
cause,  may  be  of  identical  nature,  and  on  their  first  appearance 
the  Homoeopathic  remedy  adapted  for  the  epidemic  generally 
will  usually  afiford  rapid  and  certain  aid;  but  when  after  many 
paroxysms  they  pass  into  the  chronic  state,  it  is  certain  that 
psora  soon  begins  in  most  cases  to  play  the  chief  part,  and 
they  then  all  pass  into  the  psoric  intermittent  fever.  That  a 
medical  man  engaged  in  active  practice  has  not  much  time  to 
search  about  in  the  materia  medica  is  very  true.  How  useful 
then  will  be  a  good  alphabetical  repertory  once  it  is  completed, 
which  it  would  be  if  my  collaborators  would  but  apply  them- 
selves diligently  to  the  work. 

"  I  know  not  if  you  have  seen  anything  of  my  directions  as  to 
how  to  proceed  with  this  work.  Some  days  since  I  sent  such  a 
scheme  to  Dr.  Schweikert,  with  instructions  when  he  had  made 
himself  familiar  with  it  to  communicate  it  on  to  Dr.  Stapf,  so 
that  the  latter  might  then  communicate  it  to  you.  Whether  it 
has  got  that  length,  whether  Stapf  has  it  yet  I  know  not;  but  I 
beg  you,  when  you  are  acquainted  with  the  idea,  to  devote  a 
portion  of  your  leisure  time  to  this  generally  useful  work,  and 
to  work  up  Sulphur  upon  octavo-sized  sheets,  written  upon  one 
side  only.  I  am  very  much  obliged  to  you  for  the  Regulus 
anti7nonii. 

"As  regards  the  motto,*  you  are  right  in  the  main;  I  am 
quite  open  to  be  informed  of  a  better  one.  In  place  of  the 
former  one  I  now  send  you  one  which  you  may  perhaps  think 
more  suitable,  and  I  send  another  besides  in  order  that  you  may 
exercise  a  selection.  Dietrich's  bust  every  one  says  is  a  perfect 
likeness.  We  cannot,  however,  reckon  upon  Schoppe.  The 
high  synedrium  of  the  Berlin  Satraps,  in  whose  sight  the  obscure 
Coethen  doctor  has  not  yet  found  favour,  would  never  forgive 
him  were  he  to  degrade  his  art  so  low.  I  beg  to  be  kindly 
remembered  to  yourself  and  your  wife. 

"  Yours  most  sincerely, 

"  Samuel  Hahnemann." 

*  Refers  to  a  motto  which  he  had  sent  for  his  picture,  but  which  Rumme 
considered  inappropriate. 


192  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

^'Dear  Colleague  : 

"I  thank  you  for  having  selected  Schoppe.  That  eminent 
artist  has  been  here  for  some  days  and  has  nearly  finished  my 
picture  the  size  of  life  with  hands,  and  has  succeeded  as  com- 
pletely as  even  you  and  my  friends  could  wish.  You  will  be 
delighted  when  you  see  it. 

"And  what  shall  I  say  of  Dr.  Schmit,  of  Vienna?  His 
appearance  here  was  highly  prized  by  me;  our  art  has  much  to 
expect  from  him.  He  was  with  me  five  evenings  and  afforded 
me  rare  pleasure,  until  Mr.  Schoppe's  business  with  me  rendered 
it  impossible  for  me  to  enjoy  his  society  any  longer. 

"My  bust  by  Mr.  Dietrich,  an  excellent  young  artist,  is 
finished  and  is  very  like,  as  Mr.  Schoppe  himself,  who  has  seen 
it,  confesses. 

"Now  I  know  that  no  wretched  daub  of  me  will  be  handed 
down  to  posterity,  and  I  will  also  know  that  my  friends  will  not 
allow  my  spiritual  man  to  be  transmitted  to  posterity  in  the 
caricature  that  calumnious  enemies  have  sought  to  draw  of  me 
in  their  writings. 

"  I  must  beg  you  to  inform  Stapf  of  all  this,  and  to  thank  him 
in  my  name  for  being  so  activ^e  as  regards  Count  J.'s  wishes. 
The  letters  he  sent  me  to  look  at  gave  me  much  pleasure;  I  shall 
send  them  back  to  him  by  the  earliest  opportunity. 
' '  Yours  most  sincerely, 

"Sam.  Hahnemann." 

''Coethcn,  2'/th  April,  182^.'" 


Hahnemann  during  this  spring  and  summer  of  1829  was  ex- 
ceedingly busy.  He  was  giving  sittings  to  his  two  artists,  work- 
ing on  the  "Materia  Medica,"  keeping  up  an  extensive  corre- 
spondence, all  in  addition  to  his  large  practice  by  mail  and  the 
time  given  to  his  numerous  visitors. 

In  a  letter  to  Stapf  dated  June  22,  1829,  he  says:*  "I  never 
read  the  Allgenieiner  Aiizeiger,  because  I  have  no  time  to  do  so. 
Even  the  political  papers  lie  beside  me  several  days  before  I  can 
look  at  them.  My  time  is  much  taken  up,  months  fly  past  like 
davs. 


*  Horn.  World,  Vol.xxv.,p.  19;  "Annals  Brit.  Horn.  Society,"  Vol.ii.,  p. 
156. 


FIFTIETH   FEST-JUBILEE.  1 93 

"As  regards  the  publication  of  my  '  Lesser  Writings  '  I  can 
confidently  trust  to  j^our  good  judgment.  I  leave  it  entirely  to 
you." 

Hahnemann's  fame  had  also  extended  to  other  countries,  and 
many  people  were  now  becoming  interested  in  the  new  law  of 
cure. 

Hahnemann  mentions  in  a  letter  written  in  1829  that  Sir 
Walter  Scott  had  requested  a  great  patroness  of  literature,  Baron- 
ess von  Hnde,  to  send  him  two  copies  of  the  fourth  edition  of 
the  "  Organon."  Dudgeon,  in  a  foot-note  to  this  while  wonder- 
ing where  Scott  got  his  information  about  Homoeopathy,  says 
that  nowhere  does  he  find  any  mention  of  either  the  Baroness 
von  Ende  or  Hahnemann  in  Lockhardt's  "  Life  of  Scott."* 

In  1829  Hahnemann  thus  speaks  of  the  tongue  of  calumny, 
and  especially  of  schisms  in  the  rank  of  his  own  school,  in 
a  letter  to  Stapf  dated  Coethen,  February  20,  1829  :t  "Ingrati- 
tude recoils  on  those  who  practice  it.  We  should  have  too  much 
self-respect  to  get  angry  with  it.  We  must  judge  of  this  attempt 
to  injure  us  by  our  reason, we  must  not  take  it  to  heart  if  we  are 
wise.  Contemptible  and  detestable  though  this  conduct  seems 
to  my  reason,  I  do  not  vex  myself  about  it  because  that  would 
do  me  harm,  and  because,  however  much  I  might  be  annoyed, 
that  would  not  alter  the  matter.  It  is  a  trial  sent  from  above  by 
the  all-wise  and  all  good  Ruler,  who  guides  everything  for  the 
best  if  we  knew  how  to  regard  it  as  a  good  lesson,  and  to  regu- 
late our  future  course  by  it. 

"  He  who,  as  regards  vexations  about  injuries,  etc.,  doesnot 
remain  master  of  himself,  does  not  treat  them  with  indifference, 
but  allows  his  mind  to  be  embittered,  poisoned  by  them,  will  not 
live  long;  he  will  so  soon  have  to  leave  this  world. 

"And  what  an  odious  thing  it  is  to  be  overcome  by  anger. 
Strive  to  keep  far  from  you  all  sensitiveness  in  regard  to  such 
things  so  that  nothing  can  deprive  you  of  your  composure,  of 
your  God- given  mental  tranquility,  otherwise  you  will  not  be 
long  on  earth.  Take  warning!  Learn  this  great  beautiful  lesson ! 
It  will  do  you  good. 

*  Horn.  World,  Vol.  xxv.,  113.     "Aunals  Brit.  Horn.  Society,"  Vol.  ii.,  p. 
242. 

■\  Horn.  World,  Vol.  xxiv.,  p.  502.  "Annals  Brit.  Horn.  Society,"  Vol.  ii., 
p.  249. 


I94  LIFE    OF   HAHNEMANN. 

"Do  not  allow  your  displeasure  to  find  utterance,  otherwise 
the  one  may  assert  that  there  is  schism  amongst  us,  and  that 
would  be  injurious  to  the  good  cause.  Feel  your  own  value  and 
smile  at  this  affair  in  the  firm  and  well-founded  conviction  that 
this  alliance  of  these  two  gentlemen  will  not  last  long."* 


CHAPTER  XXXVIII. 

CELEBRATION    OF     THE    FIFTIETH    FEST-JUBILEE    AT    COETHEN 

LETTER  FROM  HAHNEMANN    CONCERNING    IT — FOUNDA- 
TION   OF    FIRST    HOMCEOPATHIC   SOCIETY. 

On  the  I oth  of  August,  1829,  the  great  Fest-Jubilee  was  cele- 
brated.f  It  was  fifty  year.s  since  he  graduated  from  the  Medical 
School  of  Erlangen. 

All  the  town  took  on  a  gala  dress.  From  everywhere  the 
friends  and  former  pupils  of  the  old  Master  gladly  assembled  to> 
do  him  honor.  From  all  parts  of  Germany  they  came  to  crown 
his  head  with  garlands  of  laurel.  They  brought  him  many 
presents.  The  Duke  and  Duchess  gave  him  generous  gifts.  His 
fellow  townsmen  honored  him.  It  was  a  red-letter  day  in  the 
history  of  Homoeopathy. 

Stapf,  in  his  journal,  gave  the  following  account  of  this  im- 
portant meeting::!: 

SAMUEL  HAHNEMANN'S  FIFTY-YEAR  DOCTOR  JUBILEE,  HELD  AT 
COETHEN  THE  lOTH  OF  AUGUST,   1 829. 

Pleasing  and  noteworthy  in  more  than  one  respect  was  this 
day  in  the  year-book  of  Homoeopathic  healing.  The  great 
founder  of  the  system  has  now  finished  half  a  century  devoted 
in  a  most  successful,  candid  and  zealous  manner  to  the  service 
of  humanity  and  science. 

From  the  thorny  fields  of  the  past  he  now  garners  the  fruits 
of  a  fame-crowned  present.     That  which  he  has  so  long  strug- 

*He  refers  to  Hartlaub  aud  Triuks. 

fSchweikert's  Zeitung f.  natur.  d.  Homoopathie,  October  12,  1S31,  Vol. 
ii.,  p.  118.  Brit.  Jour,  //cm.,  Vol.  xxx.,  p.  464.  "Biographisches  Denkmal," 
p.  62.  Allg.  Horn.  Zeitung,  Vol.  xxvi.,  p.  7t^i.  Also  in  Anhalt-Cothetische 
Zeitung,  1829,  No.  63,  64.  Anhaltsche  Magaz,  1S29,  No.  34,  35.  National 
Zeitung  der  Deutschen,  1829,  No.  67. 

XArchiv  f.  d.  horn.   Heilkunst,  Vol.   viii.,  part  2,  p.  96. 


FIFTIETH    FEST-JUBILEE   AT   doETHEN.  195 

gled  to  obtain  now  wreathes  the  sternly  serene  brow  of  the  happy 
conqueror. 

Around  him  who  had  been  so  long  exiled,  persecuted  and 
insulted  was  now  entwined  the  most  gladsome  recognition, 
heartfelt  reverence,  gratitude  and  love  of  a  wide  circle  of  friends, 
far  and  near,  visible  and  invisible. 

This  festival  had  been  planned  on  the  year  previously,  and 
invitations  had  been  sent  to  many  of  the  friends  of  the  cause  in 
order  to  honor  the  man  and  the  system.  From  far  and  near, 
from  almost  every  country  in  Europe,  even  from  far-off  South 
America,  came  letters  accompanied  by  handsome  presents,  with 
congratulations  and  good  wishes. 

So  the  festal  day  approached.  On  the  evening  before  many 
friends  had  arrived  from  Berlin,  Braunschweig,  Dresden,  Eise- 
nach, Eeipzig,  Merseberg,  and  many  other  places  far  and  near. 
From  far-away  Swiss- Basil  came  that  old  friend  of  Homoeopathy, 
Dr.  Siegrist. 

Early  on  the  morning  of  the  loth  of  August,  at  six  o'clock, 
the  matin-music  of  the  old  man's  Jubilee  was  heard.  At  nine 
o'clock  the  enthusiastic  assemblage  of  friends  gathered  in  a  room 
in  his  house. 

On  a  table  decorated  like  an  altar,  adorned  with  flowers  and 
entwined  with  oak  leaves,  was  placed  the  well-executed  bust  of 
Hahnemann.  (This  was  the  bust  that  was  modelled  by  Dietrich, 
Jr.,  and  was  for  sale  for  4  thalers  a  copy.)  On  a  side  table  stood 
a  beautiful  oil  portrait  of  Hahnemann,  with  several  lithographic 
copies  taken  from  it. 

Dr.  Stapf  now  introduced  the  assembled  friends  to  the  grand 
old  man  and  his  family. 

Dr.  Regierungsrath  Freiherr  von  Gersdorff,  in  a  brief  ad- 
dress of  greeting  and  congratulation  on  this  festal  day,  crowned 
his  bust  with  fresh  laurels. 

Dr.  Rummel  then  presented  him,  with  hearty  words,  a 
splendidly  written  programme  of  the  festival  occasion. 

Dr.  Stapf  gave  him  a  jewel  box  lined  with  red  velvet 
and  containing  a  gold  and  a  silver  medal,  on  the  face  of  which 
was  a  fine  bust  of  Hahnemann  in  antique,  with  the  words: 
"Samuel  Hahnemann,  born  on  the  loth  of  April,  1755,  created 
a  doctor  at  Erlangae  on  the  loth  of  August,  1779;"  on  the  re- 
verse the  words:  "SimiliaSimilibus,"  and  the  inscription:  "Medi- 


196  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

cinae  Homoeopathicae  auctori  discipuli  et  amici  d  10  Aug.  1829." 
Copies  of  this  medal  were  sold,  in  silver,  for  a  thaler  and  12 
groschens;  in  bronze,  for  one  thaler.  They  were  made  by  the 
Leipzig  coin  engraver  and  artist  Kruger. 

Hofrath  Dr.  Muhlenbein,  with  a  Latin  address,  presented  a 
document  containing  the  signatures  of  all  who  had  contributed 
to  this  celebration. 

Dr.  Rummel  presented  him  with  an  honorary  diploma  from 
the  University  of  Erlangen. 

Dr.  Stapf  brought  to  the  Master  a  copy  of  his  recently  pub- 
lished book,  the  collection    of  Hahnemann's  Lesser    Writings.* 

Albrecht,  of  Dresden,  delivered  a  very  delightful  poem  on 
the  rise  and  merits  of  Homoeopathy. 

With  deep  emotion  the  venerable  old  man  gave  thanks  to 
God  that  he  had  been  allowed  to  make  .so  sublime  a  discovery, 
and  that  he  had  been  continued  in  bodily  and  mental  vigor. 
With  deep  feeling  he  thanked  the  friends  present  who  had  so 
honored  him  on  that  day,  thus  made  memorable  in  the  annals  of 
Homoeopathy. 

From  this  meeting  was  formed  the  Central  Homoeopathic 
Union  of  Germany. 

The  Duke  and  Ducliess  of  Anhalt  Coethen  sent  a  gold  snuflf 
box  having  the  letter  "F"  inlaid  in  brilliants,  and  a  valuable 
antique  drinking  cup,  also   writing  the  following  letters  of  con- 
gratulation :t 
"  Hofrath  Hahnemann. 

Dear  Doctor. — It  affords  me  very  great  pleasure  to  be  able  to 
congratulate  you  on  this  your  50th  anniversary  as  a  practising 
physician.  You  have  done  so  great  and  lasting  a  service 
to  mankind  by  the  discovery  and  founding  of  the  system  of 
Homoeopathy  now  already  extended  to  all  parts  of  the  world 
that  I  gladly  include  myself  among  the  number  of  those  admir- 
ers who  have  assembled  this  day  to  bring  you  the  tribute  of 
their  gratitude. 

' '  As  your  Sovereign  I  feel  myself  doubly  called  upon  to  give 
befitting  recognition  of  your  professional  labors  b)'  means  of 
which  3-0U  have  done  so  much  good  to  my  country  and  myself. 
Accept  therefore  ray  sincerest  congratulations.     I  also  send  you 

*"■  Kleiue  Medicinische  Schriften." 

tStapf 's  Archivf.  d.  ham.   Heilkunst,     Vol.  viii. 


FIFTIETH   FKST-JUBILEE   AT   COETHEN.  1 97 

the  enclosed  snufF-box  with  my  initials  set  in  diamonds,  a  pres- 
ent which  you  will  please  accept  as  a  memorial  of  your  festival 
and  as  a  slight  token  of  my  best  wishes,  and  of  the  highest  esti- 
mation in  which  I  hold  your  services. 

"  Your  faithful  friend, 

"  Duke  Ferdinand. 
"  Co e then,  August  10,  182^.'''' 

The  good  Duchess  Julie  sent  her  physician  an  antique  drink- 
ing cup,  and  with  it  the  following  very  kindly  letter: 
"  HoFRATH  Hahnemann. 

' '  Most  Honored  Sir:  On  this,  your  festival  day,  when  so  many 
admirers  of  your  highly  meritorious  services  renew  their  ac- 
knowledgments of  the  same,  I  also  shall  not  omit  to  tender  you 
my  sincerest  congratulations.  You  have  now  reached  the  beau- 
tiful goal  from  which  you  can  look  back  upon  a  long  lapse  of 
years  busily  spent  in  useful  labors,  and  can  see  now  ripening  the 
most  beautiful  fruits  of  your  many  endeavors  in  the  wide  diffu- 
sion of  Homoeopathy;  this  new  system  of  medicine  so  advanta- 
geous to  the  welfare  of  mankind. 

"  May  you  yet  experience  for  a  very  long  time  and  with  no 
interruption  this  exalted  joy,  and  be  assured  that  I  shall  always 
be  a  participant  of  it.  Accept  also  the  enclosed  souvenir  as  a 
token  of  my  gratitude,  and  with  it  the  repeated  assurance  of  my 
high  esteem  and  of  my  best  wishes  for  your  prosperity. 

' '  Your  faithful  friend, 

"Duchess  Julie. 

''Coethen,  Aug.  10,  i82g.'' 

A  Society  of  Naturalists  in  the  far  east  of  Altenberg  sent 
him  an  honorary  diploma  of  membership. 

To  him  from  that  great  scholar  and  ardent  naturalist  and  pro- 
pagator of  Homoeopathy,  Dr.  Constantin  Hering,  of  Paramaribo, 
in  far  off  Surinam,  there  came  a  kindly  letter. 

After  this  festal  friendly  greeting  the  guests  assembled  in 
the  garden  of  Hahnemann's  house  and  passed  many  hours  in 
social  intercourse. 

Dater  in  the  day  a  meeting  was  held  in  the  assembly  room 
of  the  hotel,  in  which  a  banquet  was  spread.  It  was  at  this 
meeting  decided  to  place  the  balance  of  the  money  remaining 
after  the  expenses  of  the  celebration  were  paid,  in  the  hands  of 


rgS  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

Drs.  Muhlenbein  and  Rummel,  to  be  used  as  a  nucleus  for  the 
establishment  of  a  Homceopathic  clinic  at  some  suitable  place  to 
be  hereafter  decided  upon.  All  pledged  themselves  to  con- 
tribute to  this. 

Quite  a  considerable  sum  was  realized  for  the  forthcoming  hos- 
pital, by  the  sale  of  Hahnemann's  pictures.  Hahnemann  writ- 
ing to  Stapf  on  May  12,  1831,  says:  "The  only  object  of  my 
portrait  is  to  provide  funds  for  the  Homoeopathic  Institute  {in 
spe),  so  that  the  copies  may  be  sold  for  its  benefit,  not  for  that  of 
myself  or  my  family."* 

fA  society  was  then  formed  under  the  name  "Society  for  the 
Promotion  and  Development  of  Homoeopathic  Medicine."  It 
was  called  later  the  Central  Homoeopathic  Union,  the  name  by 
which  it  is  known  to-day. 

It  was  decided  to  hold  the  meeting  of  this  Society  on  the  loth 
of  August,  annually,  in  future,  as  an  act  of  honor  to  the  Master. 
Dr.  Moritz  Muller  was  elected  President,  and  Dr.  Albrecht,  Jr., 
of  Dresden,  Secretary. 

At  the  conclusion  of  this  meeting  all  sat  down  to  a  banquet, 
the  company  of  physicians  being  augmented  by  many  distin- 
guished guests  then  staying  at  Coethen  for  Homoeopathic  treat- 
ment. Hahnemann  could  not  take  the  head  of  the  table,  the 
chair  was  left  unoccupied,  no  one  deeming  himself  fit  to  occupy 
his  place.  Happiness  and  hilarity  prevailed  at  the  table.  Toasts 
were  drunk  to  the  illustrious  persons  present. 

Upon  Hahnemann's  invitation,  all  present  resorted  to  his 
house  in  the  evening  and  enjoyed  the  friendliness  of  his  company. 

During  the  year  1828  the  Homoeopathic  physicians  of  Leipsic 
had  held  meetings.  A  small  bi-monthly  paper,  called  Praktische 
Mittheilungen  der  correspondenden  Gesellschaft  homoopathischer 
Aerzte,  was  published.  No.  i  commenced  on  January,  1828. 
It  was  devoted  to  reports  of  Homoeopathic  cures.  Six  numbers 
were  issued  during  the  year  1828. 

It  may  not  be  amiss  to  mention  that  at  a  special  invitation 
from  Dr.  Haubold,  he,  Drs.  Franz,  Hartmann  and  Hornburg  held 
a  meeting  about  the  beginning  of  the  year  1829,  at  L,eipsic,  for 
the  purpose  of  discussing  the  doctrines  of  Homoeopathy.  J     These 

*Hoin.  World,  Vol.  xxv.,  p.  258. 

\Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  xxx.,  p.  464. 

i  Hartmaun  iu  N.   W.Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  iv.,  p.  236. 


LETTERS  TO   HERING,    RUMMEL   AND   STAFF.  1 99 

meetings  were  continued  monthly  until  the  festival  of  the  loth 
of  August.  The  last  one  was  held  but  a  few  days  previously. 
In  July  Dr.  Moritz  Muller  joined  this  little  society,  probably 
the  first  Homoeopathic  society  in  the  world. 

The  thesis  of  Dr.  Rummel  at  the  Fest-Jubilee  was  delivered  in 
Latin.  It  was  afterwards  published  in  a  quarto  pamphlet  at 
Merseberg;  this  pamphlet  contains  the  names  of  those  who 
contributed  to  this  celebration.  Stapf  also  published  in  the 
Archiv  (Vol.  viii.,  pt.  2.)  this  thesis,  Dr.  Muhlenbein's  address, 
the  letters  from  the  Duke  and  Duchess,  Dr.  Hering's  letter  from 
Surinam,  and  Dr.  Albrecht's  poem. 

Rummel' s  thesis  contains  a  biography  of  Hahnemann's  life,  a 
very  complete  bibliography  of  his  writings,  printed  as  foot-notes, 
the  titles  of  many  of  the  books  of  the  time  inimical  to  his  system, 
the  history  of  the  discovery  of  the  Law  of  Homoeopathy  and  a 
number  of  deductions  regarding  its  principles. 


CHAPTER  XXXIX. 

LETTERS   TO    HERING,    RUMMEL   AND   STAPF. 

Albrecht  says :  "  The  foundation  of  the  Homoeopathic  Society 
was  confirmed  by  a  diploma  for  every  member  now  belonging  to 
it  or  subsequently  joining  it.  This  diploma  is  tastefully  adorned 
with  the  well-known  symbols  of  medical  science — the  rising  sun 
in  an  oak  wreath,  ^sculapius  and  Hygeia  being  represented  as 
standing  near  an  altar,  over  which  a  good  genius  is  drinking 
from  a  saucer;  beneath  it  the  motto,  '  Similia  Similibus,'  and 
immediately  under  the  three  words,  '  Non  nisi  digno '  (for  the 
deserving  only),  with  the  prayer  Q.  D.  B.  V. 

"In  the  centre  of  the  document  are  the  following  words: 
'Societas  medicorum  homoeopathicorum  condita  Anhaltin  Coth- 
enis  die  x  mensis  Augusti  mdcccxxix  virum — in  sociorum — 
numerum  cooptavit  idque  his  litteris  sigillo  suo  firmatis  declara- 
vit.'  Hahnemann  was  designated  Perpetual  President  by  his 
signature  in  lithography.  At  the  end  of  the  diploma  are  the 
words:   '  Concordia  res  parvse  crescunt.'  "* 


*  "Biographical  Monument  to  Hahnemann,"  Fischer's  translation,  p.  50. 
"  Biographisches  Denkmal,"  p.  64. 


200  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

Hahnemann  answered  Hering's  letter  received  on  the  fete  day- 
very  soon,  as  follows:* 

"  COETHEN,    l6th  August,    1829. 

"Dear  Colleague: 

"Your  dear  note  was  not  the  smallest  gift  which  was  made 
me  upon  the  loth  of  August.  Oh,  that  I  could  only  once  before 
I  leave  this  earth  clasp  you  in  my  arms,  to  testify  to  you  my  joy 
at  the  unexampled  zeal  which  you  so  efficiently  bestow  upon 
the  restoration  of  the  miserable,  and  the  extension  of  the  benefi- 
cent science  with  such  high  courage. 

"I  have  succeeded  in  increasing  the  aids  against  that  many- 
headed  monster — psora,  by  the  investigation  of  the  action  of 
Kali,  Causticum  (formerly  called  tinct.  acris  sine  Kali),  Alumina^ 
Co7iiiim  maculatum  and  purified  salt — Natrum  muriaticittn;  but 
unfortunately  the  fourth  part  of  the  '  Chronic  Diseases '  cannot 
yet  be  published,  so  as  to  enable  me  to  communicate  to  you  all 
the  symptoms  of  those  medicines  in  their  completeness.  I  can 
only  send  you  some  of  the  medicines  themselves. 

"See  how  much  you  can  begin  with  them;  they  are  a  great 
acquisition  to  the  antipsoric  materia  medica.  Accept  the  gift 
out  of  good-will.  Natrum  muriaticum  will  be  of  great  use  to 
your  poor  leprosy  patient.  Continue  to  prosecute  your  work  as 
heretofore,  until  it  be  time  to  return  again  to  Europe  in  good 
health,  and  hold  dear, 

"  Your  true  friend, 

"  Samuel  Hahnemann.*' 

And  a  few  days  later  Hahnemann  writes  to  Dr.  Rummelrf 
' '  Dear  Colleague: 

"  You  have  anticipated  me,  for  I  should  first  have  thanked 
you  for  the  inexpressible  labour,  trouble  and  devotion  that  5'ou 
along  with  Stapf  and  the  rest  must  have  expended  upon  my  fete 
in  order  to  celebrate  it  in  such  a  magnificent  manner.  I  especi- 
ally observed  you  to  be  so  busy  and  zealous  that  I  shall  never 
forget  it.  It  was  a  splendid  festival,  that  astonished  and  greatly 
moved  me. 


*  "Annals  Brit.  Horn.  Society,"  Vol.  ii.,  p.  159. 
'\Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  xi.,  p.  66. 


LETTERS    TO    HERING,    RUMMEL   AND   STAFF.  20I 

"  I  beg  you  take  upon  yourself  with  duke  deciis  columenque 
rerum  the  management  of  the  little  endowment  capital  which  is 
already  a  pretty  good  sum.  A  bountiful  Providence  seems  to 
bestow  a  blessing  on  this  honorable  fund. 

"  A  rich  private  merchant  in  L ,  Mr,  C.  B.  Sch ,  a 

patient  of  mine,  asked  leave,  when  he  heard  about  it,  also  to 
contribute  something  toward  it.  Has  he  done  so  ?  If  not,  I 
would  suggest  that  you  send  to  Dr.  Franz  a  blank  receipt  from 
you  without  mentioning  the  sum,  and  the  doctor  will  go  to  him 
and  put  him  in  mind  of  his  promise,  and  if  he  gives  a  sum,  as 
he  certainly  will  do,  it  may  be  inserted  in  your  receipt  and  then 
given  to  him.  I  think,  indeed,  it  would  be  well  to  have  pre- 
pared a  number  of  such  receipts  (it  would  be  best  to  have  them 
printed),  in  order  to  be  able  to  give  the  donors  this  small  re- 
membrance of  our  acknowledgments. 

"  When  you  have  collected  a  couple  of  thousand  thalers  you 
will  do  well,  if  Muhlenbein  approves,  to  invest  it  in  Prussian 
bonds,  which  will  produce  an  interest  of  80  thalers  a  year.  Do 
not  be  in  too  great  a  hurry  with  your  work  for  the  repertory;  I 
am  obliged  to  wait  for  others  who  have  much  more  time  to  spare, 
and  I  must  have  everything  collected  together  before  I  begin  to 
arrange. 

"Things  are  with  me  very  much  as  they  are  with  you.  Be- 
sides my  ordinary  business,  that  constantly  goes  on,  I  have  to 
write  such  a  number  of  letters  of  thanks  besides  those  I  have 
already  written,  that  I  know  not  when  I  shall  get  time  for  any- 
thing. 

"  But  I  shall  soon  be  clear  of  all  that,  for  I  am  quite  active, 
and  then  I  shall  expect  you  (say  in  a  fortnight  hence)  and  our 
Stapf,  and  I  trust  Gross  also  (and  Franz  ?),  on  a  long  visit;  for 
we  have  many  things  to  say  to  one  another. 

"  When  you  write  to  Stapf  pray  tell  him,  as  he  intended  to 
write  a  complete  account  of  the  loth  of  August,  that  on  that  day 
the  Natural  History  Society  of  the  Osterland  sent  me  a  diploma 
of  Honorary  Member,  accompanied  by  a  courteous  letter. 
(Piener's  name  was  among  the  signatures.) 

"I  regret  to  say  that  there  was  such  a  commotion  the  other 
day  that  I  was  unable  to  carry  out  my  intention  of  having  your 
ears  mesmerized  by  Dr.  Siegrist,  who  is  said  to  possess  great 
power  that  way.     I  have  been  thinking  over  the  matter,  and 


202  LIFE    OF   HAHNEMANN. 

consider  it  may  be  of  great  importance  for  you.     We  will  say 
more  about  it  when  we  meet.     I  must  conclude  for  to-day. 
"  Yours  most  sincerely, 

"Samuel  Hahnemann. 
"  Coethen,  2^th  August,  182 p.'' 

Hahnemann  was  much  gratified  with  the  "Kleine  Medicinische 
Schriften,"  edited  by  Stapf,  and  presented  upon  his  Jubilee  Day. 
In  a  letter  dated  September  28,  1829,  he  says:  * 
"  Dearest  Friend: 

"  You  have  rendered  an  immense  service  to  me  by  your  appro- 
priate and  necessary  notes  in  the  collection  of  my  L,esser  Medi- 
cal Writings,  published  under  your  editorship;  I  may  even  be  so 
vain  as  to  say  that  you  have  thereby  rendered  a  service  to  the 
world,  t  But  I  think  you  have  almost  given  too  high  an  esti- 
mate of  me  in  your  beautiful  preface.  In  short,  I  am  very  much 
beholden  to  you.  Would  you  believe  it  ?  It  is  only  within  the 
last  few  days  that,  owing  to  an  accumulation  of  work,  I  have 
been  able,  properly,  to  look  through  your  well  planned  and  well 
executed  laborious  undertaking. 

"  I  do  not  know  how  I  am  still  able  to  get  through  such  a 
quantity  of  work.  But  what  we  do  willingly  only  fatigues  us 
till  bedtime.  In  the  morning,  thank  God,  there  is  a  complete 
return  of  strength. 

"  Your  dear  letter  of  the  6th  of  September  gave  me  the  pleas- 
ant expectation  of  seeing  you  soon  here,  and  now  your  last  letter, 
containing  an  almost  absolute  refusal  to  pay  me  a  visit,  has  pro- 
portionately disappointed  me.  Do  not  serve  me  so.  How  do  you 
know  if  next  year,  when  the  season  is  so  far  advanced  that 
traveling  becomes  possible,  I  shall  still  be  alive  !  That  cannot 
be  considered  at  all  certain;  and  just  consider  for  a  moment  how 
much  we  have  to  talk  over  !**=!=     * 

"The  prohibition  of  the  HomcEopathic  treatment  of  acute  dis- 
eases in  Russia  is  so  abominable  that  it  must  be  of  the  greatest 
advantage  to  us.      Every  educated  person  sees  that  it  is  a  con- 

*  Horn.  World,  Vol.  xxv.,  p.  iii.  "Aunals  Brit.  Horn.  Society,"  Vol.  ii., 
240. 

fThis  letter  is  translated  by  Dr.  Dudgeou,  aud  in  a  note  he  says:  "Hahne- 
mann's Lesser  Writings,  collected  and  translated  by  myself,  and  pub- 
lished in  one  volume  by  Headland  in  1851,  contains  many  more  of  Hahne- 
mann's writings  than  are  included  in  the  two  volumes  edited  by  Stapf." 


LETTERS   TO   HERING,    RUMMEL  AND  STA.PP.  203 

trivance  of  the  dominant  Allopathic  sect,  in  order  to  divert  the 
attention  of  the  public  from  the  remarkable  superiority  of  Ho- 
moeopathy in  the  treatment  of  acute  pleurisy.  But  what  would 
such  a  strabismic  government  do  if  a  Homoeopath  were  to  cure 
a  pneumonia  or  a  pleurisy  in  a  few  hours  ?  Would  it  condemn 
the  Homoeopathic  doctor  to  have  his  head  cut  off?  Hardly  in 
our  time,  not  even  in  Russia." 

The  Hahnemann  who  wrote  this  letter  was  then  75  years  of 
age  and  so  occupied  with  his  work  that  for  nearly  two  months 
after  he  had  received  Stapf's  collection  of  his  own  writings  he 
had  not  time  to  read  the  book! 

And  again  we  find  him,  not  long  after  the  Fest-Jubilee,  ex- 
pressing to  Stapf  the  great  happiness  that  the  meeting  had 
afforded  him.     He  says  :* 

' '  Dear  Colleagues 

"I  can  bear  much  joy  and  grief,  but  I  was  hardly  able  to 
stand  the  surprise  of  so  many,  and  such  strong  proofs  of  the 
kindness  and  affection  of  my  disciples  and  friends  with  which  I 
was  overwhelmed  on  the  loth  of  August.  Even  now  when  I 
have  regained  my  mental  equilibrium  and  examine  and  reflect 
on  all  the  tokens  of  cordial  kindness  with  which  I  have  been 
honored,  I  am  lost  in  admiration  over  the  handsome  presents  of 
tasteful  and  elegant  design,  and  brought  together  with  the  best 
intention  and  with  great  labour.  I  have  not  deserved  them  ; 
they  are  gifts  of  generosity,  delicacy  and  excessive  gratitude, 
whose  value  I  fully  appreciate.  May  those  who  thought  of 
giving  me  this  pleasant  surprise  live  long  and  prosper.     *    *    * 

"As  I  am  sending  a  packet  to-day,  I  may  as  well  enclose  a 
copy  of  our  local  newspaper,  which  contains  an  account  of  our 
festival.  I  don't  know  where  the  editor  got  all  his  informa- 
tion, he  did  not  get  a  particle  from  me.  " 

*  Horn.  World,  Vol.  xxv,  p.  22.  "Annals  Brit.  Horn.  Society,"  Vol.  iii., 
p  160. 


204  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN, 


CHAPTER  XI.. 

HAHNEMANN   AND    THE   VIS    MEDICATRIX    NATURE. 

It  has  been  said  that  Hahnemann  denied  the  healing  power 
of  nature. 

There  has  been  considerable  doubt  even  upon  the  part  of  the 
Homoeopathic  school  regarding  this  matter.  At  a  meeting  of 
the  Central  Homoeopathic  Society  at  Magdeburg,  in  1830,  its 
members  passed  a  resolution  declaring  "  that  they  did  not  agree 
with  Hahnemann  in  rejecting  the  vis  medicatrix  nahcrcs.'" 

Certain  passages  in  the  "  Organon "  have  been  quoted  to 
prove  that  the  Master  repudiated  the  possibility  of  any  inherent 
medical  power  in  the  body. 

The  opponents  of  the  Homoeopathic  school  have  many  times 
used  this  argument  against  the  system. 

The  passage  in  the  "  Organon  "  mentioned  above  is  as  fol- 
lows :* 

"But  the  more  modern  adherents  of  the  old  school  do  not 
wish  it  to  be  supposed,  that  in  their  treatment  they  aim  at  the 
expulsion  of  material  morbific  substances.  Thej'^  allege  that 
their  multifarious  evacuant  processes  are  a  mode  of  treatment  by 
derivation,  wherein  they  follow  the  example  of  nature  which,  in 
her  efforts  to  assist  the  diseased  organism,  resolves  fever  by 
perspiration  and  diuresis,  pleurisy  by  epistaxis,  sweat  and 
mucous  expectoration — other  diseases  by  vomiting,  diarrhoea 
and  bleeding  from  the  anus,  articular  pains  by  suppurating 
ulcers  on  the  legs,  cynanche  tonsillaris  by  salivation,  etc.,  or 
removes  them  by  metastases  and  abscesses  which  she  develops 
in  parts  at  a  distance  from  the  seat  of  the  disease. 

'  'Hence  they  thought  the  best  thing  to  do  was  to  imitate  nature 
by  also  going  to  work  in  the  treatment  of  most  diseases  in  a  cir- 
cuitous manner  like  the  diseased  vital  force  when  left  to  itself^ 
and  thus  in  an  indirect  manner,  by  means  of  stronger  hetero- 
geneous irritants  applied  to  organs  remote  from  the  seat  of  dis- 
ease, and  totally  dissimilar  to  the  affected  tissues,  they  produced 

^Dudgeon's  Trauslation  of  the  "Organon,"  London,  1893,  p.  16. 


HAHNEMANN  AND  THE  VIS  MEDICATRIX  NATURE.  205 

evacuations,  and  generally  kept  them  up,  in  order  to  draw,  as  it 
were,  the  disease  thither. 

"  This  derivation,  as  it  wascalled,  was  andcontinues  to  be  one 
of  the  principal  modes  of  treatment  of  the  old  school  of  medicine. 

' '  In  this  imitation  of  the  self-aiding  operation  of  nature,  as 
some  call  it,  they  endeavor  to  excite,  by  force,  new  symptoms  in 
the  tissues  that  are  least  diseased  and  best  able  to  bear  the  medi- 
cinal disease,  which  should  draw  away  the  primary  disease  under 
the  semblance  of  crises  and  under  the  form  of  excretions,  in 
order  to  admit  of  a  gradual  lysis  by  the  curative  powers  of  nature. 

(In  a  note.)  "It  is  only  the  slighter  acute  diseases  that 
tend,  when  the  natural  period  of  their  course  has  expired,  to 
terminate  quietly  in  resolution,  as  it  is  called,  with  or  without 
the  employment  of  not  very  aggressive  Allopathic  remedies;  the 
vital  force  having  regained  its  powers  then  gradually  substitutes 
the  normal  condition  for  the  derangement  of  the  health  that  has 
now  ceased  to  exist. 

"But  in  severe,  acute  and  in  chronic  diseases  which  constitute 
by  far  the  greater  portion  of  all  htiman  ailments,  crude  nature 
and  the  old  school  are  equally  powerless;  in  these  neither  the 
vital  force  with  its  self-aiding  faculty,  nor  Allopathy  in  imita- 
tion of  it  can  effect  a  lysis,  but  at  the  most  a  mere  temporary 
truce  during  which  the  enemy  fortifies  himself  in  order,  sooner 
or  later,  to  recommence  the  attack  with  still  greater  violence." 

On  page  19  of  the  same  edition  he  says:  "  It  is  only  by  the 
destruction  and  sacrifice  of  a  portion  of  the  organism  itself  that 
unaided  nature  can  save  the  patient  in  acute  diseases,  and  if 
death  do  not  ensue,  restore,  though  only  slowl)^  and  imperfectly, 
the  harmony  of  life — health." 

Hahnemann  in  other  places  alludes  to  "crude  unaided  nature," 
and  mentions  its  limited  powers. 

Ameke  says  in  relation  to  this:*  "Hahnemann's  enemies  had 
cast  upon  him  the  reproach — Your  method  of  treatment  is  a 
direct  contradiction  of  our  great  teacher,  Nature.  Open  your 
eyes!  A  rush  of  blood  to  the  head,  a  congestive  headache,  is 
healed  by  nature  by  a  wholesome  bleeding  from  the  nose.  We 
copy  nature  and  draw  blood  when  congestion  is  present.  You 
fly  in  nature's  face  and  reject  bleeding.  In  a  case  of  ophthalmia 
you  see  an  eruption  make  its  appearance  in  the  contiguous  parts 

*"  History  of  Homoeopathy,"  p.  296. 


206  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

of  the  face,  and  the  inflammation  is  thereby  diminished.  We 
follow  this  hint  of  nature  and  excite  an  artificial  eruption  or  in- 
flammation by  means  of  blisters,  moxas,  cauteries,  setons,  etc. 
Have  you  never  seen  the  original  malady  relieved  by  metastases? 
Have  you  never  seen  a  skin  eruption  disappear  on  the  superven- 
tion of  diarrhoea  ?  At  variance  with  nature  you  try  to  fulfil  her 
requirements. 

"Hahnemann  was  often  assailed  with  such  reproaches  by  his 
earlier  opponents,  and  the  passage  cited  by  later  opponents  from 
the  fourth  edition  of  the  '  Organon '  was  an  answer  to  these 
attacks,  as  is  clearly  shown  by  the  text." 

It  certainly  seems  plain  from  his  writings  that  he  believed  in 
the  recuperative  or  healing  power  of  nature.  In  the  "  Essay  on 
a  New  Principle,"  1796,  he  says:*  "  In  acute  diseases,  which,  if 
we  remove  the  obstacles  to  recovery  for  but  a  few  days,  nature 
will  herself  generally  conquer." 

In  1797,  he  says  in  the  "Obstacles  to  Certainty  in  Practical 
Medicine:"  "  I  do  not  now  allude  to  cures  effected  by  dietetic 
rules  alone,  which,  if  simple,  are  not  to  be  despised,  and  which 
are  very  serviceable  in  many  cases.  If  it  be  necessary  to  make 
considerable  changes  in  the  diet  and  regimen,  the  ingenious 
physician  will  do  well  to  mark  what  effect  such  changes  will 
have  on  the  disease  before  he  prescribes  the  mildest  medicine."! 

In  1 801  he  says:  "  That  kind  nature  and  youth  will,  assisted 
by  such  an  appropriate  regimen  (as  food,  pure  air,  &c.)  and 
even  by  itself,  cure  diseases  having  far  other  producing  causes 
than  deficiency  and  excess  of  excitability,  is  a  phenomenon 
daily  witnessed  by  the  unprejudiced  observer." 

Again ::{:  "According  to  him  (Brown)  we  must  not  trust  any- 
thing to  the  powers  of  nature;  we  must  never  rest  with  our 
medicines;  we  must  always  either  stimulate  or  debilitate.  What 
a  calumniation  of  nature,  what  a  dangerous  insinuation  for  the 
ordinary  half-instructed  practitioner,  already  too  officious!  What 
a  ministration  to  his  pride  to  be  deemed  the  lord  and  master  of 
nature!" 

In  the  preface  to  the  "Thesaurus,"  he  says:||  "Nature  acts 
according  to  eternal  laws,  without  asking  your  leave;  she  loves 

*  "Lesser  Writings,"  New  York,  p.  261. 
t  "Lesser  Writiugs,"  New  York,  p.  312. 
JAmeke's  "History  of  HomcEopatby,"  p.  29S. 
II  "  Lesser  Writiugs,"  New  York,  p.  350. 


HAHNEMANN  AND  THE  VIS  MEDICATRIX  NATURE.  20/ 

simplicity,  and  eflfects  much  with  one  remedy  whilst  you  effect 
little  with  many.     Seek  to  imitate  nature." 

In  "^sculapius  in  the  Balance,"  1805,  he  says:*  "Itwereeasy 
to  run  through  a  catalogue  of  similar  acute  diseases,  and  show  that 
the  restoration  of  persons  who  in  the  same  disease  were  treated 
on  wholly  opposite  principles  could  not  be  called  cure,  but  a 
spontaneous  recovery." 

In  1808  he  writes:  "Do  not  the  poor  who  take  no  medicine  at 
all  often  recover  much  sooner  from  the  same  kind  of  disease 
than  the  well-to-do  patient  who  has  his  shelves  filled  with  large 
bottles  of  medicines  ?' ' 

In  "Allopathy,"  written  in  1831,  he  says:t  "  If  they  call  this 
an  efl&cacious  sort  of  method,  how  can  they  reconcile  it  with  the 
fact  that  of  all  that  die  in  a  year,  a  sixth  part  of  the  whole 
number  dies  under  them  (the  Allopaths)  of  inflammatory  affec- 
tions, as  their  own  tables  prove!  Not  one- twelfth  of  these 
would  have  died  had  they  not  fallen  into  such  sanguinary  hands, 
had  they  been  but  left  to  nature,  and  kept  away  from  that  old 
pernicious  art." 

Griesselich,  who  visited  Hahnemann  in  1832,  says:J  "Hahne- 
mann has  often  been  reproached  for  his  contempt  for  the  healing 
power  of  nature.  I  myself  was  led  into  this  error  by  something 
in  the  "  Organon."  In  conversing  with  Hahnemann  I  have 
never  perceived  anything  tending  to  the  denial  of  this  healing 
power.  It  appears  that  the  reformer  must  have  given  occasion 
to  misunderstandings." 

Hahnemann  wrote  a  preface  for  a  book  published  by  a  fol- 
lower, one  Dr.  Kammerer,  of  Ulm,  in  1834.  In  this  book  Dr. 
Kammerer  frequently  writes:  "The  healing  power  of  nature 
often  effects  wonderful  and  rapid  cures."  "The  severest  ill- 
nesses often  get  rapidly  well  of  themselves."  "  In  chronic  dis- 
eases the  marvellous  healing  power  of  nature  is  seen."  "  Dis- 
eases are  cured  as  rapidly,  or  more  so,  by  the  ^  proper  healing 
power  of  nature  than  by  the  best  remedies." 

Hahnemann  endorsed  everything  in  this  book  and  thus  con- 
cludes his  preface:  "  Our  dear  Kammerer  of  Ulm,  whose  sensi- 
ble treatise  I  have  now  great  pleasure  in  introducing  to  the 
public." 

*  "Lesser  Writings,"  New  York,  p.  412. 
t"  Lesser  Writings,"  New  York,  p.  739. 
j"  Ameke's  History  of  Homoeopathy,"  p.  299. 


208  LIFE   OF    HAHNEMANN. 

From  the  above  quotations  it  must  be  probable  that  Hahne- 
mann did  believe  in  the  vis  medicatrix  nattircs.'-^  That  he  also 
believed  it  to  be  limited  in  power  seems  equally  certain.  But  as 
he  believed,  as  do  his  followers,  that  it  had  been  granted  to  him 
through  the  goodness  of  God  to  discover  the  true  law  or  plan  by 
means  of  which  disease  can  most  surely  be  cured,  and  by  means 
of  which  the  vis  medicatrix,  or  inherent  power  of  nature,  can  be 
rendered  best  able  to  act,  his  statements  in  the  "  Organou  "  are 
not  in  any  way  contradictory.  He  said  over  and  over,  that  in  a 
crude  limited  way  nature  had  power  to  throw  off  certain  types 
of  disease,  but  that  in  order  to  be  able  to  act  most  successfully 
her  power  must  be  developed  by  her  own  law  of  healing — 
Homoeopathy. 

In  the  following  letter  to  a  patient,  Hahnemann  advises  him 
to  leave  things  to  his  active  vital  force  if 

'  ^Dear  Baron  : 

"As  your  sister  lives  according  to  Homoeopathic  rule,  the 
best  thing  you  can  do  in  a  general  way  is  to  follow  her  example, 
and  hence  be  as  sparing  as  possible  in  the  use  of  wine,  coffee, 
Chinese  and  other  teas;  avoid  altogether  distilled  spirits,  punch, 
acids,  spices,  especially  vanilla,  cinnamon,  cloves,  and  all  kinds 
of  perfumes  and  tooth  powders.  One  of  the  most  important 
rules  for  getting  well  is  what  Confucius  called  the  golden 
mean,  and  described  in  an  excellent  book  the  aurea  mediocritas, 
rien  de  trop  !  In  this  golden  mean  I  would  advise  you  to  abide 
with  respect  to  all  allowed  things.  I  would  like  you  to  walk 
every  day  in  the  open  air,  never  to  run,  and  only  to  ride  or 
drive  a  little  when  necessary;  to  go  to  bed  by  ten  o'clock  ;  not 
to  read  yourself  asleep  in  bed;  not  to  undertake  any  mental 
labor  after  eight  o'clock  in  the  evening;  to  take  your  supper 
before  eight  p.  m.,  and  then  to  eat  but  sparingly,  and  never  of 
meat  or  eggs;  to  have  frequently  one  or  two  friends  about  you, 
but  to  shun  large  parties;  not  to  over-exert  yourself  in  any  way, 
and  to  coolly  dismiss  all  disagreeable  subjects  like  a  wise  man. 

"Arrange    your   time    carefully,    I   pray    you.       Every    hour 

*  A  very  interesting  lecture  on  this  subject  by  Dr.  Leadam  may  be  found 
in  the  Brit.  Jour,  of  Horn.,  Vol.  xiii.,  p.  190. 

■\Allg.  Hoin.  Zeitung,  Vol.  Ixvii.,  p.  32.  Brit.  Jour.  Ham.,  Vol.  xxi.,  p. 
677.     Fliegende  Blatter  uber  Honioopathie,  Aug.  10,  1863. 


HAHNEMANN  AND  THE  VIS  MEDICATRIX  NATUR.^.  209 

wasted;  /.  <?.,  not  spent  for  our  own  or  other's  good,  is  an  irre- 
mediable loss,  which  a  delicate  conscience  can  never  forgive. 

"Nothing  is  of  more  importance  than  to  watch  and  restrain 
our  physical  inclinations,  those  of  the  imagination  included. 
The  animal  part  of  us  requires  to  be  constantly  supervised  and 
to  be  unindulgently  kept  within  bounds  as  much  as  our  reason 
will  allow;  our  constant  victory  in  this  direction  can  alone 
make  us  happy  by  an  elevating  consciousness  of  having  done 
our  duty;  we  then  feel  that  we  rest  in  the  friendship  of  the 
Only  One. 

"Would  you  like  any  other  religion?  There  is  no  other. 
All  else  is  miserable,  degrading  human  invention,  full  of  super- 
stition, fraught  with  destruction  to  mankind. 

"  So  then  I  would  advise  you  to  commence  to  live  in  a  blessed 
manner— better  late  than  never.  And  as  your  body  is  shattered 
by  disease,  take  the  small  portion  of  medicine  I  trouble  you 
with  iminterruptedly ,  and  write  a  daily  account  of  what  you 
•experience  while  taking  it. 

"  If  you  get  a  new  symptom,  I  beg  you  will  underline  it,  but 
nothing  else  in  your  report. 

"  You  are  to  take  every  morning  fasting  one  of  these  little 
powders  moistened  with  a  few  drops  of  water,  and  drink  noth- 
ing for  an  hour  afterwards.  Don't  use  any  kind  of  baths;  for 
the  sake  of  cleanliness  wash  yourself  rapidly  down  and  dry 
yourself  as  rapidly,  so  that  the  whole  operation  shall  only  last 
a  couple  of  minutes. 

"  If  you  can  find  a  very  good  natured  man  among  your  people 
who  has  gained  a  reputation  by  his  successful  treatment  of 
sprains  and  other  injuries  by  manipulation,  I  would  advise  you 
to  get  him  to  give  you,  every  other  forenoon,  a  single  pass,  with 
both  hands  extended,  slowly  over  the  whole  body,  from  the 
crown  of  the  head  along  the  arms  (the  hands  the  while  resting 
•on  the  knees),  down  to  the  tips  of  the  toes,  whilst  you  are 
seated  in  your  ordinary  clothing.  Only  you  must  not  have  on 
any  silk  garment.  He  must  not  press  upon  you  as  he  is  in  the 
liabit  of  doing.  He  should  merely  try  with  the  whole  power  of 
Tiis  will  to  do  you  good. 

"The  spirit  I  ought  to  communicate  to  you  by  my  treatment 
would  evaporate  if  conveyed  by  a  third  party.  We  employ  no 
-doctor  to  go  between  us  nor  do  we  need  one.     Should  you  at 


2IO  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

any  time  feel  more  than  usually  indisposed,  then  remain  for  a 
few  days  quietly  at  home,  living  as  abstinently  as  possible,  and 
leave  it  to  your  active  vital  force  to  bring  you  round  according 
to  the  organic  laws,  which  will  assuredly  take  place. 

' '  L,et  us  go  to  work  as  simply  as  possible,  otherwise  our  efforts. 
to  restore  your  health,  jam  aut  nunquam,  will  be  fruitless. 
When  you  have  taken  No.  6  write  me  about  yourself. 

"Yours,  Samuel  Hahnemann." 

''Coethen,  Oct.  i6,  iSjo.'" 

"  Have  you  really  read  the  '  Organon  ?'  " 


CHAPTER  XU. 

DEATH    OF    FRAU    DR.    HAHNEMANN — FAMILY   LIFE    DESCRIBED — 
LETTER  TO  STAFF  ON  THE  SUBJECT  OF  THE  LAST  ILLNESS. 

Hahnemann's  wife  died  upon  March  31,  1830.  For  forty-eight 
years  she  had  been  his  faithful  companion  in  all  his  wanderings, 
had  shared  his  adversities,  and  in  order  that  he  might  the  more 
fully  devote  himself  to  his  studies,  had  always  taken  upon  her 
own  shoulders  the  care  of  the  family.  She  was,  at  the  time  of 
her  decease,  nearly  sixty-seven  years  of  age. 

Authentic  and  interesting  particulars  of  the  last  illness  may  be 
found  in  the  following  letter  written  by  the  bereaved  old  man  to 
his  lifelong  friend,  Stapf:* 

'^Dear  Friend  a7id  Colleague : 

"My  cordial  thanks  for  your  kind  wishes  at  the  advent  of  my 
seventy- sixth  year,  and  a  reciprocity  of  many  good  wishes  for 
the  prosperity  of  yourself  and  your  esteemed  family  at  the  hands 
of  Him  from  whom  all  good  things  emanate  to  us  in  an  unseen 
manner.  In  the  moments  that  we  can  spare  from  our  busy  lives 
we  should  unceasingly  thank  the  great  Spirit  from  whom  all 
blessings  flow  with  our  whole  heart  and  all  our  undertakings 
worthy  of  Him,  though  in  all  eternity  we  can  never  thank  Him 
too  much  for  His  goodness. 

"Your  welcome  letter  reached  me  when  I  was  in  the  most  ex- 
traordinary state  in  the  world. 

*/Iom.  World,  Vol.  xxv.,  p.  209.  "Anuals  Brit.  Horn.  Med.  vSociety,"" 
Vol.  ii.,  p.  355. 


DKATH    OF    FRAU    DR.    HAHNEMANN.  211 

"My  good  wife,  who  for  many  years  had  been  always  very 
ailing,  who  three  years  ago  had  very  nearly  succumbed  to  an 
^bscess  of  the  liver  that  burst  into  the  lungs,  and  who  had 
always  objected  to  take  any  medicine,  trusting  to  her  enormous 
vital  powers,  fell  ill  at  the  beginning  of  March,  after  taking  a 
chill,  when,  as  it  seems,  she  was  in  a  state  of  great  mental  irri- 
tation, with  a  very  severe  catarrh  and  cough,  with  much  pain  in 
various  parts.  The  cough  was  attended  by  difficult  expectora- 
tion, it  increased  and  was  accompanied  by  a  well  marked  remit- 
tent fever,  and  she  commenced  to  cough  up  pus,  which  was  at 
first  bloody  and  afterwards  mixed  with  pure  bile;  then  it  became 
fetid,  and  at  last  extremely  malodorous,  just  like  an  ulcer  turn- 
ing gangrenous. 

"  After  great  suffering,  fever  and  pains,  she  at  length  (on  the 
31st  of  March,  after  midnight)  gently  fell  asleep  in  our  arms 
with  the  cheerfuUest  expression  in  the  world,  to  wake  up  in 
eternity.     The  release  was  not  to  be  regretted  on  her  account. 

"  Several  days  before  her  decease  a  letter  from  Rumrael  gave 
me  such  an  immense  amount  of  vexation  that  I  could  speak  to 
no  one,  and  was  unable  to  read  or  write  a  line.  With  difficulty 
I  got  out  of  bed  several  times  a  day  to  go  to  my  dying  wife  (be- 
cause she  noticed  my  absence),  but  I  took  care  not  to  show  her 
that  I  was  ill.  Staph,  and  Arsenic  several  times  in  alternation 
set  me  right,  so  that  I  was  recovering  when  she  died. 

"  The  worry  caused  to  me  by  the  pompous  funeral  (necessary 
in  this  place),  the  fetching  hither  of  my  two  distant  daughters, 
the  division  of  the  (considerable)  maternal  property,  and  in  ad- 
dition a  relapse  of  my  nervous  fever  which  robbed  me  of  all  my 
strength  for  three  or  four  days,  and  then  the  accumulation  of 
unanswered  patients'  letters,  the  daily  importunity  of  patients  in 
this  place,  and  so  forth — while  in  this  position,  but  thank  God  ! 
quite  recovered,  I  received  your  dear  letter  besides  many  others 
of  felicitation.  Is  it  a  wonder  that  I  could  not  answer  you  be- 
fore to  day  ? 

"You  have  no  doubt  succeeded  in  keeping  your  good  Mary 
Eylert  alive,  though  the  weather  has  been  unfavourable.  When 
you  write  me  again  (which  I  hope  will  be  soon)  tell  me  how  she 
is  now,  and  I  will  see  if  I  cannot  give  you  some  friendly  medi- 
cal advice. 

"  If  Yxkull  will  pay  me  a  visit  I  hope  you  will  accompany  him. 


212  LIFE    OP    HAHNEMANN. 

You  will  find  me  as  usual  wrapped  up  in  my  mantle  of  God- 
given  philosophy. 

' '  Your  true  friend, 

"  Sam  Hahnemann." 

"  Coethen,  April  24.,  18 jo.'" 

"  Kindest  regards  from  me  and  mine  to  your  estimable  family." 

On  the  same  morning  in  which  Frau  Dr.  Hahnemann  died 
Duchess  Julie  sent  to  her  physician  and  dear  friend  the  follow- 
ing kindly  note  of  condolence:  * 

'■  I  have  learned  with  the  greatest  distress,  my  dear  Hofrath, 
of  the  sad  blow  which  has  fallen  on  you  this  night.  The  news 
was  all  the  greater  shock  to  me  since  I  had  no  suspicion  of  the 
illness  of  the  departed. 

"  I  beg  you  to  be  assured  of  my  most  hearty  sympathy,  and  to 
grant  my  earnest  request  that,  under  this  severe  shock,  you  will 
not  neglect  your  health,  which  is  so  necessary  to  the  welfare  of 
mankind. 

"Julie,  Duchess  of  Anhalt. 

''Coethen,  March  31,  1830.'" 

Eleven  children  were  born  to  Frau  Hahnemann,  two  sons 
and  nine  daughters.  A  complete  record  of  them  may  be  found 
in  the  chapter  of  this  book  devoted  to  Hahnemann's  family. 

A  great  deal  has  been  written  in  regard  to  Frau  Dr.  Hahne- 
mann's disposition.  With  the  exception  of  Von  Brunnow  who, 
in  one  place,  says  that  she  exercised  an  arbitrary  influence  upon 
Hahnemann,  all  the  people  who  have  written  of  his  domestic 
life  from  observation,  agree  that  it  was  a  happy  one. 

Albrecht  saysrf  "Hahnemann  was  happiest  in  his  family 
circle,  and  displayed  here  as  nowhere  else  a  most  amiable  dispo- 
sition to  mirth  and  cheerfulness.  He  joked  with  his  children 
in  the  intervals  which  he  could  devote  to  them,  sang  cradle 
songs  to  the  little  ones,  composed  little  verses  for  them,  and  used 
every  opportunity  to  instruct  them.  Although  at  first  he  had 
but  little,  he  spent  all  he  could  upon  their  education  and  culture. 
Hahnemann  paid  attention,  too,  to  the  education  of  his  daugh- 
ters.    They  were   thoroughly    instructed   in    all    domestic    and 

*  "  Biographisches  Denkmal,"  1851.  "  Lebeu  und  Wirken."  Ameke's 
"History  of  Homoeopathy."     p.  155. 

f'Albrecht's  Leben  und  Wirkeu."  Ameke's  "  History  of  Homoeopathy," 
P-  159- 


FRENCH    BIOGRAPHY    OF    HAHNEMANN.  2  1 3. 

feminine  duties  by  their  mother.  Their  mother  had,  indeed, 
greater  influence  than  their  father  over  them  while  they  re- 
mained at  home.  She  was  a  remarkable  woman,  of  an  energetic 
character  and  educated  above  the  ordinary  standard.  She  was 
much  beloved  and  respected  by  her  husband  and  children.  She 
also  had  a  musical  education  and  composed  words  to  music 
written  by  herself.  Hahnemann,  too,  was  a  great  lover  of  music, 
and  had  a  pleasant  singing  voice,  but  without  knowing  a  note. 
He  was  fond  of  coming  into  the  parlor  when  he  took  an  interval 
of  repose  from  his  work,  between  nine  and  ten,  and  of  getting 
his  wife  to  play  him  something  on  the  piano." 

Seminary  Director  Albrecht  was  familiar  with  the  family  of 
Hahnemann  from  1821  to  1835,  and  certainly  would  have  known 
were  there  any  unpleasantness  between  the  husband  and  the 
wife.  Throughout  his  book,  the  "Life  and  Works  of  Hahne- 
mann," he  constantly  speaks  of  the  accord  existing  between 
them. 

Ameke  says:*  "All  the  authors  who  describe  Hahnemann's 
family  life  from  their  own  experience  agree  in  bearing  witness 
to  the  cordial  relations  between  Hahnemann  and  his  children. 
They  acknowledge  the  worth  of  his  first  wife,  of  whom  Hahne- 
mann always  spoke  with  love  and  esteem. 

' '  Even  if  she  were,  as  Brunnow  says,  fond  of  power  and 
imperious,  and  Brunnow's  writings  bear  the  stamp  of  truth,  yet 
she  must  have  possessed  excellent  qualities  which  were  highly 
valued  by  her  husband.  Her  energy  was,  no  doubt,  often  a 
support  to  him  in  his  stormy  life.  The  region  of  romance  was 
far  from  her,  she  lived  in  realities." 


CHAPTER  XEII. 

FRENCH     BIOGRAPHY    OF    HAHNEMANN  —  TRUE    PICTURES    FROM 
THE   LIFE    OF   FRAU   HAHNEMANN. 

t About  the  year  1862-3  a  sketch  of  the  life  of  Hahnemann 
was  published  in  France  in  a  book  called  "  Biographic  Univer- 
salle,  ancienne  et  moderne."  In  this  book  the  biographer,  after 
speaking  of  Hahnemann's  conscientious  sacrifices  in  giving  up 

*  "History  of  Homoeopathy,"  p.  159. 
-\ Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  xxiii.,  p.  661. 


214  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

his  practice  after  he  decided  that  the  medical  methods  in  vogue 
were  wrong,  says:  "The  miseries  of  his  altered  state  were 
increased  tenfold  by  the  bitter  reproaches  of  his  wife  and  daugh- 
ters at  his  having  sacrificed  the  realities  of  life  for  dreams  and 
chimeras." 

The  amiable  charms  of  the  second  Madame  Hahnemann  were 
placed  in  marked  contrast  to  this  picture. 

In  1865  there  was  published  in  Berlin  a  book  entitled  "  True 
Pictures  from  the  Life  of  the  late  Mrs.  Johanna  Henrietta  Leo- 
poldine  Hahnemann,  nee  Kuchler,  to  serve  to  correct  the  unex- 
ampled perversion  of  history  in  the  '  Biographic  Universalle, 
ancienne  et  moderne.'  "-'^ 

The  author  of  the  "True  Pictures"  says:  "  It  is  a  sad  spec- 
tacle when  at  the  grave  just  closed  of  celebrated  men  the  conten- 
tion of  parties  is  enkindled,  and  it  is  doubly  sad  when  such 
contentions  are  kept  alive  for  decades  by  a  malignant  party. 

"  But  when  the  flames  of  this  contention  even  enter  into  the 
sanctuary  of  a  happy  family  life,  so  that  its  smoke  envelops 
beloved,  dear  forms,  in  order  that  other  less  noble  forms  may  be 
undeservedly  transfigured,  every  true  heart,  every  German 
heart  is  outraged,  and  feels  obliged  to  scatter  this  spurious  glory, 
and  to  win  back  their  despoiled  honor  for  those  slandered  noble 
persons. 

"  Such  a  contention  also  arose  at  the  grave  of  that  celebrated 
master  of  the  healing  art,  Samuel  Hahnemann.  As  is  well 
known,  he  died  July  3,  1843,  far  from  his  loved  ones,  in  Paris, 
and  in  the  same  year  still  there  appeared  an  article  with  respect 
to  him  which  was  afterwards  published  anew  in  pamphlet  form, 
and  in  the  most  unpardonable  manner  attacked  the  first  wife  of 
the    Master,    the    noble    Johanna    Henrietta    Leopoldine,     nee 

*"Treue  Bilder  aus  dem  Leben  der  verewigteu  Frau  Hofrath  Johanue 
Henriette  Leopoldiue  Hahnemann,  geb.  Kuchler,  zur  richtigen  Geschichts- 
verdrehung  in  der  Biographie  Universalle  (Michaud)  ancienne  et  moderne. 
Paris,  bie  Madame  C.  Desplaces.  Berlin,  Ferd.  Rob.  Reichardt.  1865." 
*This  is  a  very  rare  pamphlet.  The  compiler  sought  vainly  in 
the  book  stores  of  Germany  for  a  copy.  It  is  due  to  the  courtesy 
of  Drs.  Puhlmaun,  of  Leipzig,  and  Suss-Hahnemann,  of  London,  that  he  is 
able  to  give  its  contents.  Both  Drs.  Puhlmaun  and  Suss-Hahnemann 
placed  copies  at  his  disposal.  It  is  probable  they  are  the  only  two  copies 
in  existence.  The  translation  was  made  by  Rev.  Mr.  L.  H.  Tafel,  of 
Urbana,  O. 


FRENCH    BIOGRAPHY    OF    HAHNEMANN.  215 

Kuchler,  in  her  relation  to  her  celebrated  husband  and  in  her 
whole  character.  Since  that  time  ever  and  anon,  there  have 
appeared  at  longer  or  shorter  intervals  repeated  articles  which 
were  either  inspired  by  the  same  party  or  blindly  accepting 
those  false  allegations  sought  to  cloud  the  image  of  this  genuine 
German  woman  before  the  eyes  of  her  native  land,  yea,  of  the 
whole  of  Europe. 

"  We  shall  not  notice  these,  however,  but  shall  only  occupy 
ourselves  with  the  latest  fabrication  of  French  journalism,  with 
the  article  concerning  S.  Hahnemann  in  Michaud's  '  Biographic 
Universalle,  ancienne  et  moderne,'  which  will  enable  us  most 
easily  to  find  the  source  of  all  these  false  statements."     *     *     * 

"At  page  29  we  quote  from  this  same  Biography:  '  On  the 
31st  of  March,  1830,  Hahnemann  lost  his  first  wife,  but  then 
fame,  plenty  and  peace  had  entered  his  house,  and  quite  a  while 
before  her  death  she  had  had  the  leisure  and  opportunity  to 
become  freed  from  her  prejudices  as  to  the  character  and  abilities 
of  him  with  whom  she  had  joined  her  fate. 

"  'In  the  year  1835  a  French  woman, Mademoiselle d'Hervilly, 
distinguished  by  her  mental  charms  and  excellences  and  an  ex- 
pert in  knowledge  unusual  for  her  sex.  came  to  Coethen  in  order 
to  consult  Hahnemann.  She  esteemed  and  admired  him,  and  by 
this  admiration  the  train  was  laid  to  a  marriage  which  brought 
an  uninterrupted  happiness  to  the  last  years  of  the  aged  man. 
Hahnemann  had  always  loved  France,  he  possessed  indeed  very 
much  of  the  French  wit  and  spirit  (beaucoup  de  I'esprit  francais). 
He  possessed  above  all  things  that  flowing,  clear,  and  at  the 
same  time  decided  and  captivating  style,  which  distinguishes  his 
works,  and  which  is  one  of  the  characteristic  peculiarities  of  the 
French  spirit,  much  more  than  the  heavy,  awkward  German 
style.  Hahnemann  went  to  Paris,  never  again  to  leave  it.  Out- 
side of  the  affections  which  drew  him  there  he  had  been  led  to  it 
by  differences  of  view  with  respect  to  his  teachings,  which  had 
arisen  between  him  and  some  of  his  disciples.  This  contention 
was  for  him  one  of  the  most  painful,  and  he  was  so  much  af- 
fected by  it  that  he  came  to  the  determination  to  publish  noth- 
ing more  of  the  considerable  amount  of  manuscript  material  he 
had  in  readiness. 

"  'The  arrival  of  Hahnemann  in  Paris  was  announced  in  all  the 
journals  and  was  an  event  in   the  scientific  world.     Truth  com- 


21 6  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

pels  US  to  say  that  patients  flocked  to  him  in  troops  and  that  he 
soon  had  one  of  the  most  crowded  clinics  in  Paris.  His 
rich  clientage  did  not  prevent  his  devoting  his  treatment 
and  counsel  also  to  the  poor  without  remuneration. 
Nevertheless,  his  opponents  endeavored  to  cause  him  the  same 
difficulties  which  had  so  disquieted  his  career  in  Germany,  and 
we  gladly  give  here  an  anecdote  which  does  honor  to  Guizot. 
When  Hahnemann  settled  in  Paris  Guizot  was  Minister  of 
Public  Instruction.  Some  persons  crowded  around  him  and 
went  even  so  far  as  to  claim  an  importance  by  pretending — no 
doubt  without  foundation — that  they  were  members  of  the 
Academy,  and  they  urged  him  to  forbid  the  founder  of  Homoeop- 
athy to  practice  his  art.  '  Hahnemann  is  a  scholar  of  great 
merit,'  answered  Guizot,  'science  must  be  free  for  all.  If 
Homoeopathy  is  a  chimera,  or  a  system  without  any  internal  sub- 
stance, it  will,  fall  of  itself.  But  if  it  is  an  advance  it  will  spread 
even  despite  our  repressive  measures,  and  this  the  Academy 
should  wish  above  all  others,  for  the  Academy  has  the  mission 
to  forward  science  and  to  encourage  its  discoveries.' 

"'Even  to  his  last  moment  Hahnemann  practiced  his  art  with- 
out disturbance  or  obstruction,  under  the  protection  of  French 
hospitality.  He  had  finally  entered  into  the  harbor  of 
his  rest  after  a  life  tossed  by  many  storms.  Surrounded  by  the 
esteem  of  his  adherents  and  disciples  and  encompassed  by  the 
intelligent  love  and  affection  of  his  wife,  who  not  only  compre- 
hended him,  but  also  participated  in  his  labors  and  his  studies; 
rich  finally  in  the  gain  afibrded  him  by  his  calling,  he  constantly 
to  the  last  hour  blessed  the  event  that  had  brought  him  into  our 
country.  His  vigorous  age  knew  no  bodily  weakness  nor  mental 
debility,  and  he  concluded  his  long  career  with  a  gentle  death 
on  the  second  of  July,  1843,  leaving  Madame  Hahnemann  as  the 
heiress  of  his  teachings,  precepts  and  observations  which  he  had 
set  down  unremittingly  in  his  numerous  manuscripts.  His 
teachings  which  he  has  left  to  science  may  be  briefly  summed 
up  in  a  few  comprehensive  aphorisms:  Diseases  are  healed  by 
similar  ones;  i.  <?.,  through  medicaments  which  in  the  health)'' 
man  produce  the  characteristic  symptoms  of  the  disorder  to  be 
combatted.  The  strength  and  the  effectiveness  of  medicaments 
are  only  discovered  by  experiments  with  the  pure  matter  on  the 
healthy  body;  its  purity;  i.  e.,    its  unity  is  the  indispensable 


FRENCH    BIOGRAPHY    OF    HAHNEMANN.  217 

condition  of  its  efficacy.  The  motion  which  is  communicated  to 
the  medicines  at  their  preparation  gives  them  a  force  which  is 
multiplied  through  the  division  of  their  parts,  whereby  their 
spiritual  qualities  are  developed,  and  by  the  similarity  of  their 
nature  they  can  thus  directly  come  to  the  aid  of  the  suffering 
organs.  The  diseases  with  which  men  are  afflicted  are  divided 
into  three  great  classes:  the  acute,  the  epidemic  and  the  chronic 
or  psoric  diseases.  But  the  same  medicaments  cannot  be  used 
with  each  one  of  these  three  great  classes  of  human  diseases, 
every  disease  is  individual,  the  original  element  of  disease  modi- 
fies itself  according  to  the  bodily  constitution,  according  to 
former  processes  in  the  body,  and  according  to  the  mental  and 
physical  state  of  the  subject. 

"'The  Homoeopath  must  therefore  carefully  search  out  the 
various  symptoms  which  constitute  the  morbid  state  of  the 
patient,  and  must  seek  out  that  medicament  for  its  cure  which 
-in  the  healthy  body  causes  symptoms  which  are  as  nearly  as 
possible  similar  to  those  of  the  diseases  to  be  treated.  The 
Homoeopathic  medicaments  are  therefore  in  a  certain  degree  in- 
dividual like  the  accidents  of  disease.  Nature  has  richly  sup- 
plied man  in  the  plants,  the  metals,  and  in  the  apparently  dead 
matter,  with  the  most  effective  and  varied  remedies,  all  that  it 
needs  is  to  discover  them;  but  this  can  only  be  done  through 
constant  experimenting  carried  on  for  many  years.  The  Hom- 
oeopathic Materia  Medica  contains  the  enumeration  of  a  great 
number  of  curative  peculiarities  and  properties  in  the  realm  of 
Nature,  but  it  has  still  before  it  a  whole  series  of  observations 
and  discoveries  immeasurable  as  Nature  itself. 

"'It  is  not  our  intention  to  pass  judgment  respecting  the 
merits  of  Hahnemann's  teachings;  we  would  also  be  utterly  in- 
competent for  such  a  work.  Our  task  must  and  does  confine 
itself  to  state  and  explain  his  method.  But  we  would  not  fulfil  our 
duty  as  historians  if  we  should  not  add  that  at  this  day  his 
method  is  practiced  in  the  whole  world;  that  it  has  numerous 
and  zealous  apostles  in  France,  the  United  States,  and  in  all  the 
civilized  countries  of  the  Orient  and  Occident,  and  that  it  seems 
to  have  won  the  supremacy  in  Germany  through  the  importance 
and  excellence  of  its  representatives.  If  we  still  add,  that  it  has 
to  a  certain  degree  stood  the  test  of  time,  and  that  we  may  con- 
ceive the  point  of  time  to  have  come  where  it  must  draw  on 


21 8  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

itself  the  undivided  attention  and  the  serious  investigation  of 
scientific  bodies  and  of  scientists  who  have  made  it  their  life's 
work  to  alleviate  the  sufferings  of  humanity. 

"  '  A  register  giving  the  titles  of  the  works  either  written  or 
translated  by  Hahnemann  will  still  more  contribute  to  give  a 
just  idea  of  the  extent  of  his  labors  and  of  his  knowledge.'* 

"  Now  the  passages  in  this  article  to  which  we  take  exception 
are  the  following: 

"After  Hahnemann's  residence  in  Hettstadt,  Dessau  and  Gom- 
mern  has  been  mentioned,  we  read:  '  He  here  on  December  i, 
1782,  married  Henriette  Kuchler,  the  daughter  of  a  druggist  in 
Dessau,  by  whom  he  had  eleven  children.' 

"  Shortly  after  this  Hahnemann's  grand  intention,  worthy  of 
a  hero,  to  give  up  his  practice  until  he  should  discover  a  new 
curative  method  blessed  for  all  mankind,  instead  of  the  old 
method  which  he  recognized  as  unsatisfactory,  is  introduced  by 
the  words:  '  He  had  already  a  practice  of  many  years'  standing, 
a  good  reputation,  he  was  married  and  the  head  of  a  numerous 
family;  to  put  the  crown  on  his  misfortune  he  was  also  exposed 
to  the  reproaches  of  his  wife  and  his  daughters.  This  mother, 
who  was  embittered  on  account  of  the  privations  laid  upon  his 
family  and  who  could  not  understand  the  sentiments  which  ani- 
mated her  husband,  piled  upon  him  bitter  reproaches  for  having 
bartered  away  his  wealth  for  poverty,  and  for  sacrificing  the 
reality  of  life  for  empty  dreams  and  chimeras.' 

"  We  would  only  here  insist  upon  it  that  there  is  not  a  word 
which  would  correspond  with  such  views  and  reproaches;  when 
Hahnemann  moved  from  Coethen  to  Paris  he  himself  in  a  letter 
to  his  neighbor,  merchant  Ulbricht,  warmly  commends  both  his 
daughters  to  his  care. 

"  How  this  picture  contrasts  with  the  brilliant  portrait  of  the 
second  wife  of  the  great  man,  Melanie  d'Hervilly,  in  the  same 
article,  which  is  found  in  this  work  that  places  on  its  title  page 
the  proud  name  of  'Histoire.'  'She  is  distinguished  by  the 
charms  and  excellencies  of  her  mind  and  an  extent  of  knowl- 
edge unusual  for  her  sex.  She  esteemed  and  admired  him  (H) 
and  this  admiration  ended  in  a  marriage  which  bestowed  an  un- 
interrupted happiness  to  the  last  years  of  the  life  of  the  aged 

*(In  the  French  article  here  follows  a  list  of  the  works;  this  list  is  omitted 
iu  the  German  book:   "Treue  Bilder.") 


FRENCH    BIOGRAPHV    OP    HAHNEMANN.  219 

man.  By  her  he  finall}^  found  his  haven  of  rest  after  a  life  so 
traversed  b)^  storms.  Surrounded  by  the  respect  of  his  adherents 
and  of  his  disciples,  encompassed  by  the  intelligent  affection  of 
a  wife  who  not  only  understood  but  even  took  part  in  his  labors 
and  in  his  studies,  etc' 

"  Even  the  most  impartial  reader  will  here  notice  the  intention, 
and  smile.  While  the  bond  of  the  most  lovely  marriage  and 
the  happiness  of  possessing  eleven  excellent  children  is  in  the 
coolest  manner  merely  mentioned,  the  trumpets  sound  at  the 
approach  of  the  charming  French  woman.  While  the  reproach 
of  unkindness,  hardness  and  narrowness  of  mind  is  hurled  at 
the  most  faithful  companion  of  his  life,  Madame  Melanie  appears 
as  the  angel  of  peace,  who  fans  tranquility  to  the  old  man 
weary  from  cares. 

"A  German  who  knows  the  sacred  nature  of  German  marriage 
and  at  the  same  time  knows  how  corroded  and  corrupt  marital 
relations  are  in  our  neighboring  country,  in  the  land  of  gal- 
lantry, and  where  the  esprit  gaps  at  us  and  disgusts  us,  a  Ger- 
man will  consider  it  a  matter  of  deep  interest  to  protect  a  German 
woman,  the  noble  companion  of  one  of  its  greatest  men,  from 
the  insults  of  French  perversions  of  history,  now  once  for  all. 

"  Let  us  then  first  of  all  see  what  these  two  wives  were  to 
this  great  husband.  Johanne  lycopoldine  sacrificed  to  him  her 
whole'  property  when  he,  as  already  mentioned,  formed  the 
great  souled  resolution  of  withdrawing  altogether  into  the 
sanctuary  of  his  creative  mind,- in  order  to  devise  ways  and 
means  to  relieve  mankind  from  the  bodily  sufferings  afflicting 
it,  after  he  had  recognized  the  existing  methods  though  a  thou- 
sand years  old,  still  not  only  insufficient  but  as  causing  unceas- 
ing new  corruptions.  That  the  thoughtful  housewife,  the 
faithful  mother  often  must  have  been  full  of  anxiety  when  she 
considered  what  would  become  of  her  numerous  family  if  Hahne- 
mann should  not  satisfactorily  solve  the  difficult  problem — who 
would  wonder  at  this?  Who,  rather,  would  not  wonder  if  the 
German  woman  had  not  under  such  circumstances  frequently 
looked  anxiously  into  the  future,  instead  of  contenting  herself, 
with  French  frivolity,  with  the  joys  of  an  evening. 

"Melanie,  as  was  found  out  later,  was  not  rich  when  she 
came  to  Coethen,  and  ensnared  the  venerable  old  man  in  French 
style,  with  her  bonds  of  love,  and  she  finally,  as  it  were,  carried 


220  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

him  away  with  a  considerable  part  of  his  possessions,  all  of 
which  the  deceased  wife  had  held  together  with  wise  economy; 
thus  she  transferred  him  out  of  the  circle  of  a  happy  home  into 
the  brilliant  salons  of  the  French  capital. 

"  Johanne  H.  L.  watched  with  tender  care  over  the  domestic 
happiness,  the  tranquil  peace  of  the  great  master,  so  that  he 
only  felt  happy  in  his  house,  in  his  family,  and  seldom  left 
them;  a  care  and  a  loving  activity  which  her  faithful,  noble 
daughters  after  her  death  undertook  and  exercised.  Who  has 
not  read  with  heartfelt  sympathy  the  passage  in  the  'Biography 
of  Christian  Friedrich  Samuel  Hahnemann,'  Leipzig,  1851,  page 
103,  which  describes  this  state,  to  attest  the  authenticity  of 
which  the  author  could  find  numerous  still  living  witnesses 
in  Coethen. 

"Melanie  who,  after  her  marriage  with  Hahnemann,  led  a 
most  brilliant  life  (compare  the  description  of  the  celebration  of 
the  loth  of  August,  1836,  in  the  Frankfiu^ter  Journal,  No.  66), 
and  who  must  have  expended  enormous  sums  which  she  made 
the  old  man  of  80  years  work  for,  by  compelling  him  quite 
against  his  custom  to  establish  a  far  extended  clinic  outside  of 
his  house  (in  Coethen  he  only  visited  his  illustrious  patron,  the 
genial  Duke  Ferdinand),  so  that  he  daily  drove  about  in  the 
labyrinthine  Paris  to  make  calls  on  his  patients.  In  a  letter  of 
the  late  Hahnemann,  of  April  17,  1842,  to  the  Aulic  Councillor, 
Dr.  Lehmann,  he  wrote:  'Since  I  have  been  in  Paris,  no  Ger- 
man physician  has  had  any  instruction  from  me,  nor  has  anyone 
been  allowed  to  visit  patients  in  m)^  name.'  And  in  a  former 
letter  to  Dr.  Lehmann,  he  wrote:  'I  have  been  able  to  restore 
some  1000  patients,  and  not  one  of  them  died,  though  it  (the 
malignant  grippe)  has  taken  away  many  thousand  men  from 
the  hands  of  others.' 

"Was  that  the  haven  of  rest,  O  noble  old  man,  weary  of 
laurels,  into  which  your  second  wife,  in  her  tender  love,  led  you? 

"  How  often  there  may  you  have  wished  youiself  back  in  your 
quiet  asylum,  which  even  to  this  day  is  protected  by  the  faith- 
ful hands  of  your  children,  like  a  sanctuary  ?  How  often,  when 
the  noise  of  the  Italian  opera  sounded  around  you,  did  you  long 
in  your  spirit  to  be  back  in  3^our  undefiled  family  room,  where 
after  your  quiet  activity  and  the  blessed  work  of  the  day  you 
were  delighted  with  the  happiness  and  the  love  of  your  dear 
ones! 


"  true;  PICTURES  "    CONTINUED.  221 

' '  But  the  masterwork  of  the  love  of  Melanie  is  the  already 
cited  testament  of  Hahnemann,  which  his  grandson,  the  cele- 
brated Dr.  Suss-Hahnemann,  in  London,  to  the  delight  of  all 
admirers  of  the  family,  has  finally  published  in  the  before- 
mentioned  journal.* 


CHAPTER  XLIII. 

"TRUE  pictures"   CONTINUED. 

Hahnemann's  will  is  now  quoted  in  full.  It  will  be  given 
later  on  in  the  present  volume.  The  author  of  the  "True  Pic- 
tures," whose  name  is  nowhere  given,  then  continues  in  regard 
to  this  will  as  follows: 

"Yes,  noble  spirit,  this  testament  is  not  your  work,  you  knew 
your  loved  ones  too  well  to  presuppose  any  such  sentiments  in 
them.  As  you  yourself  did  good,  as  long  as  you  were  free,  so 
your  daughter  and  grandchildren  have  only  done  good  as  long 
as  they  lived,  and  those  who  are  still  alive  are  still  doing  good. 
And  how  could  you  have  threatened  the  children  of  your  I^eo- 
poldine,  who  faithfully  shared  with  you  storm  and  sunshine; 
how  could  you  have  threatened  them,  when  you  were  compelled 
to  always  think  gratefully  of  this  noble  wife,  who  not  only  gave 
you  these  children,  but  also  gave  them  the  heritage  of  her  love 
for  you. 

"To  the  psychologist  this  authorship  may  be  no  secret,  but 
sound  common  sense  will  see  the  secret  wires  at  work  which  put 
in  motion  the  powers  which  originated  this  testament. 

"  But  we  have  not  the  duty  of  a  psychologist  but  that  of  a  his- 
torian before  us,  and  shall  now  also  walk  in  the  historical  path- 
way, although  a  German  man  and  a  German  woman  would  be 
contented  with  this  simple  parallel  for  the  formation  of  a  sure 
judgment  as  to  the  character  of  the  two  wives  of  the  great  man. 

"Let  us  then  conduct  the  historical  demonstration,  in  which 
we  need  not  complain  that,  as  a  matter  of  course,  we  have  only 
a  few  officialdocuments  with  respect  to  the  domestic  circle  of 
activity,  of  the  noble  housewife.  For  these  few  will  suffice  to 
free  her  memory  from  these  slanders. 

"The  most  important  proof  is  given  by  Hahnemann  himself, 

*  Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  22,  p.  674. 


222  LIFE   OF   HAHNEMANN. 

in  his  autobiography  (published  in  '  Chr.  Fr.  Sam.  Hahnemann, 
Biographisches  Denkmal,'  Leipzig,  1851),  which  he  wrote  only 
for  his  own  use,  in  his  quiet  privacy,  and  which  was  composed 
at  the  very  time  when  he  was  involved  in  the  most  severe  scien- 
tific and  material  conflicts,  in  the  year  1791.  The  passages  bear- 
ing on  the  subject  are: 

"  'Yet  I  then  (in  Gommern)  first  began  to  enjoy  somewhat 
more  fully  the  innocent  joys  of  domestic  life,  together  with  the 
sweetness  of  employment,  in  the  company  of  the  companion  of 
my  life,  whom  I  married  immediately  on  entering  on  my  ofiice, 
namely,  Henriette  Kuchler,  etc' 

"And,  lastly,  concerning  his  stay  in  Leipsic:  'Four  daughters 
and  one  son,  together  with  my  wife,  constitute  the  spice  of  my 
life.' 

"Ernst  von  Brunnow,  the  author  of  the  first  French  transla- 
tion of  Hahnemann's  'Organon  of  Medicine,'  who  had  a  long 
acquaintance  with  Hahnemann  and  his  family,  wrote,  according 
to  his  own  confession,  free  from  all  partisan  spirit:  'Ein  Blick 
auf  Hahnemann  und  die  Homoopathie.' 

"In  this  work  he  says,  on  page  30:  'The  family  of  Hahne- 
mann really  offered  a  model  of  the  old  German  discipline  of  chil- 
dren. But  not  only  obedience,  but  also  really  the  most  sincere 
love  of  the  children  towards  their  parents  could  be  seen  there. 
In  the  midst  of  the  amusement-loving  and  elegant  L,eipsic  his 
daughters  took  no  part  in  any  public  amusement,  went  dressed 
simply,  like  the  daughters  of  a  mechanic,  and  attended  to  the 
most  menial  employments  of  the  household  with  cheerfulness.' 

"We  further  call  particular  attention  to  the  fact  that  Hahne- 
mann, in  1789,  gave  up  his  medical  practice  (see  Argenti,  above) 
and  wrote  down  his  acknowledgment,  given  above,  on  the  30th 
of  August,  1791,  thus  just  during  the  time  (see  Autobiography) 
when  his  wife  and  children  are  said  to  have  set  the  crown  on  the 
misfortunes  of  the  great  thinker.  How  do  3'ou  feel,  Herr  Bio- 
grapher, as  these  facts  are  compared  ? 

"What  historian  of  even  moderately  honest  intentions  and 
scientific  spirit  can,  after  these  testimonies,  put  any  confidence  in 
the  communications  of  the  '  Biographic  Universalle?' 

"And  yet,  let  us  bring  some  further  documents  from  Hahne- 
mann's own  family.  When  Melanie  had  prepossessed  the  good 
father  against  the  whole  family,  his  daughter,  Fran  Dr.  Louise 


"TRUE    pictures"    CONTINUED.  223 

Mossdorf,  nee  Hahnemann,  equally  distinguished  for  her  intelli- 
gence and  her  heart,  wrote  a  letter  to  her  father  on  November  lo, 
1834,  which  is  in  our  possession  in  a  well  attested  copy,  and 
which  contains  a  panegyric  on  her  deceased  mother  that  must 
move  every  impartial  reader  to  tears.     It  is  as  follows: 

"  '  My  ardently  beloved  father,  do  listen  to  me! 

"  '  In  recalling  my  blessed  mother  and  her  incomparable  traits 
of  character  and  her  virtues,  my  heart  breaks!  All  the  virtues 
of  her  mind  and  heart  will  make  her  ever  memorable  to  you. 

"'That  the  blessed  departed  for  nearly  forty-eight  years 
clung  to  you  with  unchanging  fidelity,  brought  up  with  you  ten 
children,  and  this  under  the  most  crushing  surroundings,  roamed 
over  a  great  part  of  the  world  with  you,  and,  indeed,  pursued  by 
the  most  dreadful  persecutions  of  the  enemies  of  Homoeopathy, 
of  all  kinds  and  in  thousandfold  distresses,  want  and  care;  that 
she  always  willingly  and  gladly  sacrificed  the  last  penny  of 
her  fortune  as  well  as  her  most  valuable  jewelry,  bedding, 
clothing,  etc.,  in  order  to  relieve  you  and  the  children  from  all 
want,  and  to  drive  away  hunger  and  anxiety;  that  she  in  every 
condition  gave  you  her  faithful  assistance  comforted  you  and 
helped  you  to  bear  innumerable  sufferings  and  pains;  in  the 
most  deadly  diseases  ofiered  you  and  the  children  her  unswerv- 
ing aid,  and  bore  the  most  terrible  persecutions  with  dignity; 
ever  inspired  the  children  with  the  greatest  esteem  due  to  you, 
and  impressed  upon  them  to  consider  what  love  and  gratitude 
they  owed  to  you;  how  she  ever  admonished  the  children  to 
everything  right  and  good  and  to  every  virtue. 

"  '  We  owe  her  never  ending  thanks,  and  once  more  loudly 
declare  it!  Never  ending  thanks  to  her!  All  honor  to  her!  The 
most  fervent  love,  affection  and  true  reverence  to  the  dear  de- 
parted! Would  that  all  wives  and  mothers  might  faithfully  follow 
her  example! 

"  'Fantastic  and  romantic  notions  she  eschewed.  She  lived 
only  in  the  reality,  till  she  at  the  end  stretched  out  to  us  her 
dear  hand  with  the  most  impressive  maternal  admonitions,  and 
several  times  yet  stretched  out  her  faithful  hand  to  you,  which 
had  assisted  in  guiding  you  happily  through  your  life  agitated 
by  a  thousand  storms,  and  with  tears  clung  to  you  with  her 
loving,  blessing  gaze,  and  in  consequence  of  her  unexampled 
fidelity  found  it  so  hard  to  part  from  you.     What  a  touching 


224  LIFE    OF   HAHNEMANN. 

scene.  While  we  yet  love  on  earth  and  have  our  complete  con- 
sciousness, every  thought  of  it  must  deeply  move  us  and  stir  us 
and  can  never,  never  be  extinguished  from  our  thankful  heart, 
if  we  belong  to  God  and  hope  to  be  received  into  His  fatherly 
arms. 

"'Written  November  lo,  1834,  for  a  memorial  of  the  dear 
departed  one.  "  '  Louise.'  " 

"According  to  this  letter  the  departed  one  was  quite  the  true 
woman  whom  we  have  characterized  above.  When  on  the  cen- 
tenary of  Hahnemann's  birthday,  in  the  year  1855,  his  statue 
was  unveiled  at  Coethen,  the  daughters,  grandchildren  and 
great-grandchildren  dedicated  a  poem  to  the  mother,  which, 
being  composed  by  the  daughter  Louise,  may  here  find  a  place. 

"'For  the  celebration  of  the  one  hundredth  birthdaj-  of 
Samuel  Hahnemann  and  the  unveiling  of  his  statue  in  the 
garden  of  the  Clinic  of  Sanitary  Councillor,  Dr.  Lutze,  on  the 
loth  of  April,  1855,  the  same  festive  day  the  remaining  daugh- 
ters, grandchildren  and  great-grandchildren  sing  humbly  with 
truly  childlike  love  and  affection  to  their  mother  and  grand- 
mother and  great- grandmother,  Johanne  Henriette  Leopoldine 
Hahnemann,  nee  Kuchler,  the  following  song:'* 

Here  follows  the  song. 

"So  strong  was  the  band  of  love  with  which  Johanne  had 
enfolded  her  family  that  the  children  did  not  think  it  right  to 
celebrate  the  centenary  of  their  father  without  proclaiming  at 
the  same  time  to  their  mother,  twenty-five  years  after  her  death, 
these  touching  words  of  undying  love. 

"  We  have  numberless  other  proofs,  but  we  do  not  use  them 
for  fear  that  these  family  testimonials  might  be  suspected  of  par- 
tiality, although  we  are  so  much  convinced  of  their  genuine 
character  that  we  would  be  glad  to  vouch  for  them  with  our 
word." 

*  The  music  of  this  composition  is  placed  as  an  appendix  to  the  book, 
"Treue  Bilder,"  the  full  and  complete  score  being  written. 


TRUE    PICTURES        CONCLUDED.  225 


CHAPTER  XLIV. 

"TRUE  pictures"   CONCLUDED — ALBRECHT   UPON  THE   MATTER 
— HAHNEMANN'S   LETTER   TO   ELISE. 

"We  will  yet  adduce  another  outside  testimonial  for  the 
happy  family  life  of  Hahnemann's  first  marriage,  that  of  Dr. 
Argenti,  in  Pesth,  as  we  find  it  in  Dr.  Lutze's  Fliege^tde  Blatter 
ueber  die  Homoopathie,  Year  7,  No.  20,  p.  163.  We  there  read: 
'  So  four  years  passed  in  Dresden  and  its  environs  in  a  very 
agreeable  manner  in  the  circle  of  his  increasing  family,  for  he 
then  already  had  four  daughters  and  one  son,  who,  together 
with  his  wife,  embellished  his  life.' 

"Dr.  Argenti  rests  as  to  this  statement,  evidently,  and  with 
the  highest  scientific  propriety,  on  the  already  adduced  passages 
of  Hahnemann's  autobiography. 

"Just  as  important  passages  we  might  extract  from  the  letters 
of  numerous  young  physicians  (especially  that  of  Dr.  Hartlaub), 
some  of  whom  lived  for  a  considerable  time  in  Hahnemann's 
house,  and  were  here  obliged  to  become  acquainted  with  his 
family  life. 

"They  all  praise  the  familiar,  loving,  harmonious  life  of  his 
family  in  the  most  indubitable  terms;  the  beloved,  honored  lady 
counsellor,  the  friendly,  modest  daughters.  Especially  we  must 
make  mention  of  the  lately  deceased  daughter,  Charlotte,  who 
was  distinguished  for  her  kindly  heart.  She  was  the  most  con- 
stant assistant  of  her  father  in  preparing  and  potentizing  the 
medicines;  she  had  much  perseverance,  was  extremely  punctual 
and  conscientious,  most  resembled  her  father  and  was  much 
loved  by  him.  She  composed  verses  and  drew  very  prettily, 
and  was  especially  useful  in  the  housekeeping  department. 

"It  is  true,  indeed,  that  a  few  of  those  physicians,  and  espe- 
cially such  as  were  largely  aided  in  a  material  way  by  Hahne- 
mann, afterwards  sought  to  slander  his  family.  But  also  this 
contradiction  is  easily  solved.  For  who  of  our  readers  does  not 
know  how  easily  parasitical  plants  wind  around  a  vigorous, 
thrifty,  proud  tree,  to  waste  in  slothful  idleness  that  which 
genius  in  the  wild  storm  of  the  contest  and  with  manifold  priva- 


226  LIFE   OF    HAHNEMANN. 

tions  has  gathered  together.  The  child-like,  pure  spirit  of 
Hahnemann,  his  (I  am  sorry  to  say,  frequently  abused)  good 
nature,  his  mind  ever  pursuing  the  ideal,  likely  made  him  fre- 
quently forget  that  even  the  greatest  genius  cannot  do  without 
the  firm  soil  of  the  solid  earth  so  long  as  he  lives  here  below 
with  his  own. 

"We  do  not  wish  to  introduce  any  individual  case  of  this 
parasitical  tribe,  but  shall  only  adduce  an  example  of  his  liberal 
disposition  in  financial  affairs.  Hahnemann  had  offered  a  cele- 
brated and  rich  publishing  house  in  lycipsic  the  manuscript  of  a 
book  about  Allopathy,  and  he  had  entered  into  a  contract  secur- 
ing him  twenty  thalers.  Later  on  the  publishing  house  com- 
plained of  the  bad  times  and  he  voluntarily  reduced  his  demands 
to  ten  thalers.  In  a  letter  of  July  i6,  1831,  the  publisher  ac- 
cepted the  present  with  the  words:  'We  accept  your  kindness 
in  this  present  very  depressed  state  of  business  and  transmit  to 
you  enclosed  ten  thalers,  Pruss.  Cour.'  And  these  ten  thalers 
he  at  once  donated  to  a  charitable  institution,  while  the  same 
publishers  afterwards  printed  abusive  articles  about  Homoeo- 
pathy in  a  journal  appearing  with  their  imprint. 

"The  arranging,  penetrating  mind  of  the  first  partner  of  his 
life,  which  instinctively  separated  the  good  from  the  evil  (the 
enviable  heritage  of  noble-minded  women)  no  doubt  always  dis- 
covered such  pretended  admirers  of  her  great  husband  and  also 
made  them  harmless — et  hinc  illae  lachrimae !  On  the  other 
hand,  the  worthy  Johanne  H.  I,.,  like  her  daughters,  showed 
her  charity  to  innumerable  worthy,  deserving  poor,  as  her  ad- 
mirers in  Coethen  will  testify;  and  even  thirty-four  years  after 
her  death  grateful  friends  visit  the  grave  of  the  blessed  departed. 

"Her  household  always  bore  the  impress  of  the  well-to-do 
citizen,  equally  far  removed  from  the  foolish,  extravagant  luxury 
of  the  haute  volee  of  Paris  as  from  the  meanness  of  the  filthy 
avarice  which  would  have  been  unworthy  of  the  world- renowned 
founder  of  a  new  era  in  the  field  of  medicine. 

"We  conclude  our  series  of  quotations  from  the  before- 
mentioned  Biographj'  of  Hahnemann  (Leipsic,  1851,  its  author 
a  friend  and  admirer  of  Hahnemann  of  many  years  standing), 
with  the  following,  concerning  his  family  life:  'He  had  lived  in 
a  very  happy  marriage  from  which  had  sprung  nine  daughters 
and  two  sons.     His-  wife  (Johanne  H.   L.)   had  been,   in  the 


"TRUE    PICTURES        CONCLUDED.  227 

noblest  and  highest  sense  of  the  word,  the  treasure  of  his  life. 
A  whole  souled  woman,  a  whole-souled  wife,  housekeeper  and 
mother,  living  only  for  her  circle,  resigning  every  worldly 
pleasure,  she  accompanied  her  husband  through  life  with  the 
most  faithful  affection.  Lifted  up  by  the  pinions  of  her  own 
spirit,  she  assisted  in  enabling  him  to  soar  up  to  the  height  of 
fame.  Therefore  he  felt  impelled,  after  having  entered  into  the 
haven  of  external  calm  in  Coethen,  to  say  jn  his  happiest  hour 
to  the  loving  companion  of  his  life:  'Yes,  mother,  that  is  true, 
how  could  I  have  helped  succumbing  to  the  manifold  persecu- 
tions which  passed  over  me,  without  your  support?  How  could 
I  have  been  able  to  pass  with  such  courage  and  such  strength 
through  the  storms  of  life  which  drove  us  through  hali  the 
world  if  you  had  not  so  friendly  stood  at  my  side?' 

"Such  an  (musical)  enjoyment  in  his  own  house  gave  to  his 
spirit  the  wished  for  relaxation,  refreshed  his  heart  and  unveiled 
the  depths  of  his  heart.  '  How  would  I  have  been  able,'  he  ex- 
claimed in  such  a  moment,  seizing  the  hand  of  his  wife  and 
looking  into  her  eye  with  the  fire  of  love:  'how  would  I  have 
been  able,  my  beloved,  to  have  persevered  in  the  many  distress- 
ing relations  of  life  without  you;  how  could  I  have  carried 
through  my  intention  despite  of  all  difficulties,  how  fight  all  my 
enemies  with  undiminished  strength  ?  If  you  remain  by  my 
side,  I  hope  to  gain  the  most  complete  victory  and  to  raise  up 
my  system  despite  of  all  opponents,  to  be  everywhere  and  alone 
acknowledged.' 

"Impartiality  is  not  a  pleasant  virtue,  says  a  celebrated  his- 
torian, just  as  it  is  not  a  pleasant  duty  to  give  sentence;  it  must 
almost  always  give  with  the  one  hand  and  take  with  the  other. 
And  yet  we  acknowledge  that  we  have  enjoyed  exercising  it  in 
this  case.  For  either  this  biographer  of  Hahnemann  worked 
with  a  nonchalance  inexcusable  in  so  comprehensive  a  work, 
which  carelessness  did  not  even  think  it  worth  while  to  look 
through  most  important  sources  for  this  work,  or  he  had  his 
private  interests,  which  are  incompatible  with  the  dignity  of 
science. 

"  We  are  free  to  acknowledge  that  we  are  inclined  to  believe 
the  latter,  and  to  suppose  that  that  treatise  intends  an  apotheosis 
of  Melanie  at  the  expense  of  Hahnemann's  own  family.  So  that 
writer  sought  to  find  a  motive  for  Hahnemann's  leaving  Coethen 


228  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

in  this,  that  his  ungrateful  fellow-citizens  persecuted  their  bene- 
factor. He  was  insulted  here,  as  he  says,  in  a  gross  manner  by 
the  mob.  Cries  were  uttered  under  his  windows,  and  his  window 
panes  were  broken  with  stones,  etc.  In  the  original  we  read: 
'  II  y  fut  outrage  par  la  populace.  Des  cris  furent  pousses  sous 
ses  fenetres  et  ses  vitres  furent  brisees  a  coup  de  pierres.'  De- 
spite the  remarkable  success  of  his  cures,  he  was  none  the  less 
the  object  of  the  manifestations  mentioned  by  us  and  of  the 
grossest  insults.  In  the  original  we  read:  '  Ce  succes  remarqu- 
able  ne  I'empecha  pas  d'etre  en  butte  pendant  huit  ans  aux 
manifestations  et  aux  outrages  dont  nous  avons  parle.'  Who 
does  not  recognize  the  French  author  who  sees  before  him  the 
'Canaille  de  Paris'  with  its  'a  bas  Guizot!  L,ampions!  Lam- 
pions ! ' 

"The  good  people  of  Coethen  are  supposed  to  have  been  cap- 
able of  raising  a  tumult  against  a  celebrated  fellow-citizen  who 
is  even  at  this'  day,  after  a  separation  of  thirty  years,  loved  and 
honored  by  them;  a  tumult  which  we  could  only  find  in  the 
most  ill- famed  of  the  Faubourgs  of  Paris.  From  eye-witnesses- 
and  members  of  the  family  it  is  established  to  the  contrary  that 
all  these  manifestations  are  to  be  reduced  to  the  one  fact,  that 
once  a  boy,  who  besides  was  regarded  in  the  city  as  idiotic,  made 
a  slip  while  playing  with  his  cross  bow  on  the  street  and  shot 
a  pebble  into  a  window  pane  of  Hahnemann's  house.  '  Sic 
crescunt  minimse  res,'  etc.,  in  the  hands  a  French  journalist! 

"  If  the  '  Biographic  '  further  relates  that  Hahnemann  was  in- 
duced to  his  transfer  to  Paris  by  the  differences  of  opinion  as  to 
his  teachings,  which  had  developed  between  him  and  some  of 
his  pupils,  and  that  he  was  so  affected  by  this  most  painful  of 
all  disputes  that  he  was  considering  the  resolution  not  to  publish 
any  more  of  the  considerable  amount  of  his  writings  which  he 
had  prepared;  this  assertion  is  also  refuted  by  the  fact  which 
is  well  known  to  all  German  Homoeopaths  of  that  time,  that 
Hahnemann  in  the  year  1835  at  the  parting  banquet  which  he 
gave  to  his  disciples  in  the  Hotel  de  Pologne  in  Leipsic,  offered 
to  leave  to  them  the  royalty  of  the  last  book  he  had  written  in 
Germany  for  a  memorial,  and  that  his  disciples,  though  they  did 
not  need  it,  promised  to  receive  it  thankfully  as  a  loving  legacy 
of  their  master. 

"Why,    finally,    the    'Biographic'    does    not,    with    a    word,. 


"TRUE   pictures"    CONCLUDED.  229 

mention  his  funeral,  unworthy  of  a  great  man,  and  also  by  this 
invites  the  reproach  of  a  particular  tendency,  will  best  appear 
from  the  passage  of  the  above  printed  article  from  Meyer's 
Hornoopathische  Zeihing. 

"  We  would  only,  finally,  request  the  reader  to  carefully  com- 
pare the  sketch  in  '  Michaud's  Biographie  universalle  ancienne 
et  moderne'  with  the  testament  of  Hahnemann.  Kven  the 
reader,  who  is  least  influenced  by  prejudice,  will  not  fail  to  notice 
a  certain  relation  of  affinity  between  the  two  documents,  and  he 
will  not  then  consider  our  supposition  as  to  the  tendency  of  the 
former  to  be  frivolous. 

"But  thou,  noble  Johanne  Henri ette  Leopoldine,  slurcber 
quietly  under  the  wreaths  of  love  and  reverence  with  which  thy 
husband,  thy  children  and  thy  friends  have  so  richly  decked  thy 
grave;  yes,  and  still  adore  it  to  this  day.  Thy  spirit,  now  raised 
above  the  tumultuous  conflicts  of  this  lowly  life  on  earth,  enjoys 
-gladly  the  reunion  with  the  beloved  husband  and  the  children 
who  have  followed  thee  in  those  higher  regions,  while  here 
below,  in  the  remembrance  of  a  grateful  posterity,  a  second  im- 
mortality is  found  for  thee. 

"Whilst  thou  above  walk  in  the  light  of  the  eternal  truth, 
shades  of  falsehood,  malignity  and  ignorance  often  yet  cloud 
thy  image;  but  the  truth  will  finally  conquer  also  here,  and  will 
glorify  and  protect  thy  memory  for  all  times  !" 

It  needs  no  printed  name  to  the  above  vindication  of  the 
memory'  of  Frau  Hahnemann  to  indicate  that  the  pamphlet  was 
the  work  of  one  of  Hahnemann's  daughters.  It  has  been  given 
just  as  it  was  published.  That  Frau  Hahnemann  was  a  good 
wife  and  mother,  faithful  amid  trials  and  always  loyal,  all  evi- 
dence decides.* 

Albrecht,  the  author  of  the  "  Biographisches  Denkmal,"  says 
that  in  order  to  understand  Hahnemann's  character  one  must 
realize  fully  his  relations  to  his  family  and  friends.  He  then  il- 
lustrates his  kindly  feeling  towards  his  wife  by  quoting  the  fol- 
lowing letter,  written  to  her  upon  their  wedding  day.  He  uses 
the  familiar  name  of  endearment,  Elise,  as  was  often  his  custom. 
"He  usually  called  her  Elise,  because  he  was  very  fond  of  that 
name."t 

*A  portrait  of  Frau  Hahnemann  was  published  in  Dr.  Puhlmann's  Leip- 
ziger  Popiilaire  Zeitschrift  fur  Homoopathie,  July  i,  1893. 
t"  Biographisches  Denkmal,"  p.  no. 


230  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

"  On  the  day  of  my  union  with  my  beloved  Johanne  Henriette 
lyeopoldine  Kuchlerin  (born  at  Dessau,  December  i,  1763). 

"Elise! 

"What  solemn  stillness  is  in  the  world  around  me! 

"Presentiments  of  higher  feelings  pulse  gently  through  all 
the  nerves  of  my  expanding  senses.  Never  did  the  sun  rise 
more  solemnly  for  me,  never  flowed  the  warm  blood  more  uni- 
formly in  my  veins,  never  did  my  heart  beat  more  harmoniously 
and  significantly  than  to-day,  when  it  beats  for  thee,  Elise,  for 
thee! 

"Feel  here,  how  warm,  how  sincere!  It  beats  not  thus  in  the 
bosom  of  the  effeminate  or  unfeeling!  Here,  faithful  friend, 
shalt  thou  rest! 

"  Here  shalt  thou  await  whatever  blessings  may  flow  softly 
over  thee  from  my  hand!  Here  mayest  thou  listen  to  the  grate- 
ful sharer  of  thy  virtues  as  he  tells  thee  of  the  world  and  en- 
sures to  thy  virtue  the  reward  ever  bestowed  upon  the  good,  as 
experience  has  so  often  proved;  here  thou  mayest  enliven  thy 
mournful  hours,  and  wisely  confirm  the  wavering  heart  on  which 
thou  reposest  so  trustfully. 

"There,  take  forever  the  hand  which  will  with  joy  smooth 
the  roughness  of  thy  pilgrimage!  Take  the  heart  which  never 
ruined  the  innocent,  never  refused  consolation,  and  sometimes — 
rejoice  to  think  of  it — has  done  good,  which,  in  a  word,  is  proud 
to  have  selected  thee. 

"If  you  deem  it  of  any  value,  take  it.  I  praise  thee  not,  I 
only  know  thee;  admire  thee  not,  only  love  thee;  and,  willst 
thou  believe  me?  so  calmly,  so  judiciously,  that  I  am  satisfied 
that  after  many  years,  if  possible,  that  I  shall  feel  still  more  for 
thee,  if  at  least  the  closest  of  all  happy  ties  can  be  enduringly 
interwoven  by  Providence. 

"Let  us  then,  Elise,  entwined  in  each  other's  love,  seize  the 
happy  moments  and  string  them  as  pearls  on  our  common 
thread  of  life,  regardless  that  an  irresistible  something  may  rend 
our  God-like  cord,  revenging  the  greater  happiness,  should  this 
fail,  in  the  pleasant  memory  of  bygone  enjoyments. 

"Darling!  I  go  to  encounter  the  battles,  the  weary  burden 
of  life!  but  I  shall  also  encounter  thy  animated,  innocent  em- 
braces, the  encouragement  of  thy  example,  the  trustful  nature 
of  thy  full   heart  which   beats   for  me.     Would  that  I  had    a 


CURE    OF    DR.    AEGIDI.  23 1 

thousand  times  greater  strength  to  imitate  thy  diligence,  un- 
swervingly to  follow  the  example  of  thy  virtues,  to  respond  with 
fuller  power  to  all  thou  dost  for  me  and  to  all  thou  feelest  for 
me.     Dearest  friend,  be  happy! 

"The  soaring  power  of  all  my  youthful  nerves  filled  with  the 
spirit  of  life,  as  well  as  the  cooling  warmth  of  the  blood  which 
soon  will  become  chilled  in  my  dying  heart,  belong  to  thee, 
Elise,  to  thee!" 

After  the  death  of  Frau  Hahnemann  the  household  was  con- 
ducted by  the  two  daughters,  and  the  domestic  life  went  on  in 
the  usual  quiet,  scholarly  fashion.  Albrecht  says:*  "He  was 
the  same  stately,  vigorous  old  man,  whose  regular  manner  of 
life  went  on  as  in  the  lifetime  of  his  wife." 


CHAPTER  XLV. 

CURE    OF   DR.    AEGIDI. 

It  was  during  the  3'ear  1830  that  Hahnemann  made  a  won- 
derful cure,  which  conclusively  proved  that  his  new  doctrine 
regarding  the  cause  and  cure  of  chronic  diseases  was  correct. 
His  distinguished  patient  was  one  Dr.  Julius  Aegidi,  a  promi- 
nent Allopathic  physician  and  army  surgeon.  As  a  result  he 
became  a  believer  in  Homoeopathy,  which  method  he  practised 
until  his  death. f 

In  a  Eeipsic  Homoeopathic  journal  Dr.  Aegidi  published  an 
article  giving  his  reasons  for  examining  and  believing  in 
Homoeopathy,  as  follows:^ 

"  In  the  autumn  of  1830  I  was  thrown  from  a  vehicle,  severely 
injured  my  shoulder  and  also  took  a  violent  cold.  By  local 
bloodletting  and  the  usual  antiphlogistic  treatment  the  most  dis- 
tressing of  my  symptoms  were  removed  in  the  course  of  a  few 
days;  still  a  paralytic  heaviness  of  the  arm  remained,  and  in  the 
course  of  a  few  weeks  very  severe  periodical  pains  set  in,  which 
shot  from  the  shoulder  to  the  elbow;  and  gradually  I  lost  the 

*  "Leben  und  Wirken,"  p.  73. 

tDr.  Aegidi  died  at  Freieuwalde,  Germany,  on  May  11,  1874,  in  his  79th 
year. 

XHom.  Examiner,  Vol.  ii.,  June,  1841.  Northwest  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  ii., 
p.  142.     Allg.  Horn.  Zeit.,  Vol.  vii. 


232  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

use  of  the  arm  more  and  more,  while  the  sensation  of  palsy  and 
heaviness  increased  daily;  every,  even  the  slightest,  pressure 
upon  the  diseased  part,  caused  the  most  insupportable  pains; 
the  suffering  limb  commenced  to  waste  away,  while  the  shoulder 
and  elbow  joints  began  to  swell. 

"  After  exhausting  my  own  medical  knowledge,  I  placed  my- 
self under  the  care  of  several  of  my  most  worthy  colleagues;  but 
after  the  lapse  of  a  year  the  above  mentioned  symptoms  still 
continued,  with  even  more  than  their  former  severity;  all  motion 
of  the  arm  was  suspended;  the  shoulder  hung  one  inch  and  a 
half  lower  than  the  sound  one;  the  anterior  surface  of  the 
shoulder  joint  and  the  articular  surfaces  of  the  elbow  joint  were 
much  enlarged;  the  elbow  stood  about  four  inches  off  from  the 
body,  and  every  attempt  to  approximate  it  to  the  side  occasioned 
the  most  intense  pains;  the  left  shoulder  blade  was  drawn 
strongly  outwards  and  to  one  side;  the  coracoid  process  was 
situated  about  half  an  inch  below  the  collar  bone;  the  supra- 
spinatus  muscle  had  diminished  perceptibly  in  size. 

"The  pains,  which  were  increased  to  an  insupportable  degree 
by  the  slightest  external  pressure,  were  always  very  intensely 
aggravated  at  night,  so  that  any  rest  and  sleep  was  out  of  the 
question.  My  whole  body,  but  the  affected  side  in  particular, 
became  much  emaciated;  the  emaciation  even  extended  to  the 
left  half  of  the  face.  My  pulse  was  slow;  skin  pale;  I  suffered 
much  from  coldness  of  the  whole  body,  and  my  digestion  was 
much  impaired.  On  account  of  an  hereditary  predisposition  to 
gout,  anti-arthritic  treatment  was  now  instituted  by  my  medical 
advisers,  and  two  large  issues  were  opened,  one  upon  the  arm, 
the  other  upon  the  shoulder  blade. 

"After  the  continued  use  of  these  means  for  about  four 
months,  without  any  improvement,  the  issues  were  allowed  to 
dry  up,  and  two  setons  were  inserted  in  their  places.  As  no 
essential  improvement  took  place  in  the  course  of  several 
months,  the  actual  cautery  was  applied  to  the  shoulder  joint; 
and  in  consequence  I  enjoyed  comparative  freedom  from  pain  for 
about  one  month,  during  which  period  of  time  I  also  recovered 
the  use  of  my  arm  in  some  measure,  and  even  began  to  flatter 
myself  with  the  hope  of  a  perfect  restoration. 

"But  my  joy  did  not  last  long;  for  when  the  burnt  places 
began  to  heal  slight  returns  of  my  former  pains  set  in  and  con- 


CURE    OF   DR.    AEGIDI.  233 

centrated  themselves  about  the  elbow  joint,  which  began  to 
swell,  while  the  shoulder  joint  diminished  in  size  in  the  same 
ratio;  so  that  in  the  course  of  several  months  the  elbow  joint 
had  become  the  seat  of  the  same  disease  that  had  formerly- 
affected  the  shoulder  joint.  To  complete  my  misery,  enlarge- 
ments of  other  bones,  viz.:  the  clavicles,  the  sacrum,  etc.,  took 
place  and  rendered  every  position  that  I  assumed  in  bed 
extremely  painful.  In  utter  despair  of  any  relief  from  the  use 
of  Allopathic  remedies  I  desisted  entirely  from  all  medical  treat- 
ment, and  my  condition  grew  worse  from  day  to  day. 

"  At  length  I  concluded  to  consult  Hahnemann.  I  wrote  him 
a  statement  of  my  case,  and  begged  for  advice  and  assistance. 
He  answered  me,  among  other  remarks:  'Your  disease  is  of  far 
older  date  than  you  have  any  idea  of.  You  must  have  had  the 
itch  at  some  time,  or  some  other  eruptive  disease  which  was  im- 
properly cured.  Your  disease  is  constitutional,  and  however 
scientifically  the  issues,  setons,  and  the  hot  irons  may  have  been 
applied,  their  action,  of  course,  could  only  be  local.  You  thought 
if  free  suppuration  could  be  brought  about,  your  shoulder  would 
be  cured  and  your  whole  body  would  remain  fresh  and  sound. 
But  how  miserably  were  all  your  hopes  disappointed — how  rapidly 
did  your  disease  extend  itself.  How  foolish  are  such  gross  ideas 
of  disease,  and  what  cruelty  attends  their  application  in  the  at- 
tempt to  cure  disease.  But  a  ray  of  truth  must  soon  penetrate 
into  this  Egyptian  darkness;  the  dawn  of  better  things  ap- 
proaches.' 

"No  words  can  express  my  astonishment  at  the  positiveness 
■with  which  Hahnemann  asserted  that  I  must  have  been  afflicted 
with  some  eruptive  disease  which  had  been  suppressed,  but  not 
cured.  Five  years  before,  while  I  was  officiating  as  assistant 
surgeon  in  the  Berlin  Hospital,  I  had  pricked  my  finger  with  a 
lancet  with  which  I  had  just  opened  an  abscess  in  the  person 
of  a  patient  who  was  at  the  time  affected  with  the  itch.  I 
thought  nothing  about  it  at  the  time,  but  on  the  following  day 
a  small  pustule  formed  on  the  finger  and  occasioned  an  intense 
itching  and  burning.  I  applied  caustic  to  it,  and  a  small  sore 
remained  for  several  days,  to  which  I  applied  an  ointment. 

"About  this  time  I  received  an  appointment  as  an  army 
surgeon  and  traveled  by  mail  to  join  my  division;  but  on  the 
second  day  of  my  journey  the  wound  in  my  finger  became  in- 


234  LIFE    OF   HAHNEMANN. 

flamed,  and  not  only  my  hand,  but  the  whole  arm,  as  far  as  the 
shoulder  joint,  became  so  swollen  and  painful  that  I  was  obliged 
to  discontinue  my  journey.  Rest  and  warm  fomentations  soon 
relieved  me,  but  several  months  elapsed  before  I  succeeded  in 
healing  the  wound  on  my  finger.  Soon  after  it  had  entirely 
healed,  I  was  attacked  with  acute  rheumatism  on  my  left  shoulder, 
that  lasted  for  several  weeks,  but  I  did  not  dream  that  there  was 
any  connection  between  it  and  my  former  affection  of  the  hand. 
With  the  exception  of  transient  twinges  and  darts  of  pain  about 
the  shoulder  joint,  I  had  considered  myself  perfectly  well  up  to 
the  time  that  I  was  thrown  from  my  vehicle. 

"Convinced  that  Hahnemann  had  formed  a  correct  opinion 
of  my  case,  I  commenced  taking  the  powders  he  had  sent  me, 
and  indulged  in  the  highest  hopes  of  a  speedy  recovery.  But 
my  patience  was  destined  to  be  sorely  tried;  I  had  received 
nine  powders,  of  which  one  was  to  be  taken  every  fifth  day. 
During  the  course  of  the  first  week  several  new  symptoms  arose, 
but  no  amelioration  of  my  suffering  took  place.  Soon  after, 
however,  a  slight  improvement  commenced  and  gradually  prog- 
ressed until  towards  the  end  of  the  fifth  week,  when  I  could 
lift  my  arm  with  comparative  ease,  and  could  bend  and  extend 
my  elbow;  the  swelling  of  the  joint  had  disappeared  entirely  and 
all  pain  had  left  me;  and  from  that  time  to  the  present  (eight 
years)  I  have  never  had  the  slightest  return  of  my  former  com- 
plaint. 

"After  so  brilliant  a  confirmation  in  my  own  person  of  the 
value  of  Homoeopathy,  I  applied  myself  with  zeal  to  the  study 
and  practice  of  it,  and  have  been  abundantly  rewarded  in  fre- 
quently witnessing  the  most  rapid  and  permanent  cures  of  the 
most  dangerous  and  deep-rooted  diseases." 

Dr.  Dudgeon,  in  speaking  of  Aegidi,  says:*  "Dr.  Aegidi,  of 
Freienwalde  on  the  Oder,  though  an  ardent  disciple  of  Hahne- 
mann, went  very  near  to  ruin  the  system.  He  began  to  make 
experiments  along  with  Boenninghausen,  of  Munster,  in  1832^ 
with  respect  to  the  administration  of  mixtures  of  Homoeopathic 
medicines,  and  Hahnemann  was  so  taken  with  the  idea  that  he 
proposed  inserting  a  paragraph  in  the  fifth  edition  of  the 
'  Organon '  (1833),  recommending  such  mixtures.  He  was, 
however,  induced  not  to  do  this  by  the  protests  of  the  Central 
*Hom.  World,  Vol.  xxv.,  p.  113. 


CURE    OF    DR.    AEGIDI.  235 

Society  of  Homoeopathic  Physicians,  and  Aegidi,  himself  becom- 
ing convinced  of  the  dangers  of  such  a  practice,  joined  in  per- 
suading Hahnemann  to  abandon  his  project.  L,utze,  of  Coethen, 
as  is  well  known,  published  an  edition  of  the  '  Organ  on  '  in 
1865,  with  the  suppressed  paragraph  recommending  medicinal 
mixtures." 

The  matter  will  be  more  fully  mentioned  in  the  chapter  on  the 
rival  Organons. 

After  Aegidi' s  conversion  he  became  physician,  through 
Hahnemann's  recommendation,  to  the  Princess  Frederika  of 
Prussia.  Hahnemann  mentions  him  thus  to  Stapf:*  "Enclosed 
I  return  you  Aegidi' s  letter.  I  felt  it  incumbent  on  me  to  com- 
municate it  to  the  Princess,  and  I  did  well,  for  the  Prince  has 
already  found  a  vacant  post  of  regimental  surgeon  in  a  hussar 
regiment,  and  has  begged  the  General  Staff- Surgeon  von  Wiebel 
to  appoint  Dr.  Aegidi  to  the  post.  This  I  have  already  an- 
nounced to  Dr.  Aegidi.  I  am  happy  to  have  been  able  to  pro- 
cure this  good  fortune  for  the  excellent  Aegidi,  and  in  addition 
to  the  pay  attached  to  the  post,  he  can  freely  and  frankly  prac- 
tice Homoeopathy  in  a  populous  town  under  the  protection  of 
the  ruler  of  the  land,  and  may  even  prepare  his  own  medicines 
and  dispense  them  unhindered  to  all  his  patients.  If  this  is  not 
a  real  piece  of  Homoeopathic  good  luck,  then  I  don't  know  what 
is.  I  have  also  received  for  him  the  patronage  of  the  Princess, 
which  he  will  retain,  though  at  the  same  time  I  remain  her 
chief  physician,"     (Dated  February  3,  1831.) 

In  a  letter  dated  May  12,  1831,  he  continues:  f  "  If  you  men- 
tion in  the  Archiv  the  good  fortune  that  has  befallen  Cammerer, 
do  not  forget  to  set  forth,  as  a  pendant  to  this,  that  Dr.  Aegidi 
has  been  summoned  from  Tilsit  to  assume  the  post  of  Homoeo- 
pathic physician-in- ordinary  to  the  Princess  Frederika  of  Prussia 
in  Dusseldorf,  with  a  salary  of  six  hundred  thalers  per  annum, 
traveling  expenses,  free  post,  and  a  written  permission  from  the 
authorities  to  enable  him  to  prepare  and  dispense  his  Homoeo- 
pathic medicines,  and  that  he  has  already  entered  upon  his 
duties.     Aegidi  has  now  gone  to  fetch  his  family. 

"He  writes  me  word  on  his  way  thither  from  Berlin  that 
Boenninghausen,  during  his  absence,  will  attend  to  the  Princess' 

*Hom.  World,  Vol.  xxv.,  p.  254. 
t  Horn.  World,  Vol.  xxv.,  p.  258. 


236  LIFE    OP    HAHNEMANN. 

health,  and  that  he  has  converted  to  Homoeopathy  an  eminent 
Allopathic  physician  in  Alberfeld,  Dr.  Regenstecher — a  very 
remarkable  story.  He  winds  up  with  this  true  remark:  '  The 
greatest  Allopathic  thinkers,  it  they  only  possess  hearts  and 
heads,  will  by  and  by  become  the  most  zealous  adherents  to  the 
truth.'  " 


CHAPTER  XLVI. 

REPORT  OF  CASES  BY  HAHNEMANN — ESSAY  ON  PHTHISIS — PITCH- 
PLASTER    RECOMMENDED    BY    HAHNEMANN. 

The  first  part  of  the  third  edition  of  the  "Materia  Medica 
Pura"  was  published  bj'^  Arnold,  of  lycipsic,  in  1830.  A  curious 
omission  is  mentioned  by  Hahnemann  in  a  letter  to  Stapf,  dated 
February  15,  1830:*  "It  is  a  pity  that  in  the  new  third  edition 
of  the  first  volume  of  the  '  Materia  Medica  Pura,'  which  is  now 
being  printed,  I  have  forgotten  to  mention  in  the  prefatory  note 
to  Nux  vomica  that  even  in  persons  of  mild  disposition  a  want 
of  resolution  (hesitancy)  makes  the  patient  a  suitable  subject  for 
the  employment  of  N21X  vomica  if  it  is  indicated  by  the  other 
symptoms.     I  beg  you  to  communicate  this  to  others." 

The  second  volume  of  this  edition  appeared  in  1833.  In  the 
preface  the  reports  of  two  cases  treated  by  Hahnemann  in  18 15 
may  be  found.  These  cases  had  appeared  in  the  first  edition  of 
1816,  but  much  explanatory  matter  is  printed  in  this  edition  that 
did  not  appear  in  the  two  earlier  editions.  In  this  preface  he 
gives  his  reasons  for  his  decided  aversion  to  publishing  cases. 
Hahnemann  never  published  but  these  two  cases.     He  says:t 

"The  request  of  many  of  my  half-converted  friends  to  give 
them  specimens  of  my  cures  is  difficult  to  do  and  of  little  use 
when  done.  Each  case  of  disease  that  is  cured  shows  how  that 
particular  case  has  been  treated.  The  prosecution  of  the  cure 
rests  always  on  the  same  principles  which  are  already  known. 
In  such  case  they  cannot  well  be  shown  in  the  concrete,  nor  can 
they,  by  the  mention  of  a  few  cures,  become  more  distinct  than 
by  the  exhibition  of  the  principle." 

*  Ham.  World,  Vol.  xxv.,  p.  115. 

t  "Reine  Arzueimittellehre,"  1833,  Vol.  ii. 


REPORT    OF   CASES    BY    HAHNEMANN.  237 

These  ca§es  were  published  as  a  preface  to  the  second  volume 
of  the  "Materia  Medica  Pura,"  third  edition,  1833.  They 
may  be  found  in  Dudgeon's  edition  of  the  Materia  Medica,  also 
in  the  Lesser  Writings  and  in  the  B7dtish  Journal  of  Homceopathy ."^ 
They  were  also  published  in  Hempel's  edition  of  the  Materia 
Medica. 

Two  cases  were  communicated  by  Hahnemann,  from  his  note- 
book, to  Boenninghausen,  in  1843,  and  were  by  him  published 
in  Stapf 's  Neues  Archiv,  vol.  i,  1844.  They  also  may  be  found 
in  the  I,esser  Writings.  With  these  exceptions,  Hahnemann 
did  not  give  to  his  followers  any  account  of  his  cures.  As  an 
illustration  of  his  reasons  may  be  cited  the  story  of  the  cure  of 
Dr.  Fleischmann,  of  Vienna,  f  He  had  for  a  long  time  been 
suflfering  with  the  rheumatic  gout  and  had  tried  many  remedies. 
In  despair  he  wrote,  stating  his  symptoms,  to  Hahnemann. 
Hahnemann  returned  for  answer  a  package  of  powders  with 
directions.  Improvement  followed,  and  soon  after  the  receipt 
of  more  powders,  complete  cure.  Fleischmann  wrote  asking 
what  had  cured  him.  Hahnemann  replied:  "No;  read  the 
'  Materia  Medica  Pura,'  and  you  will  find  out.  If  the  medicines 
were  suited  to  any  other  case  they  would  be  found  characterized 
there;  if  not,  it  is  not  necessary  for  you  to  know  more." 

Dr.  Fleischmann  did  study  the  Materia  Medica  and,  impressed 
with  that  great  book,  finally  became  one  of  the  most  distinguished 
Homoeopathic  physicians  in  Germany. 

Only  the  first  and  second  volumes  of  this  third  edition  of  the 
"  Materia  Medica  Pura"  were  ever  published.  Hering  once,  in 
scoring  some  of  the  fault-finders,  said:|  "  We  never  got  the  third 
edition  of  any  of  the  other  four  volumes  because  the  anti- 
Hahnemannians,  by  their  boasting  and  their  braying,  brought 
it  into  such  a  discredit  that  the  second  edition  of  the  '  Chronic 
Diseases,'  1837  to  1839,  became  like  the  most  of  the  Materia 
Medica,  waste  paper." 

Hering  says  that  in  the  first  and  second  editions  of  the  Materia 
Medica  Hahnemann  kept  his  own  symptoms  separately  from 
those  of  his  fellow-provers.  But  in  the  '  Chronic  diseases '  and 
in  the  third  edition  of  the  Materia  Medica  he  allowed  his  own 

'^' Horn.  Times,  London,  Vol.  i.,  p.  9.     Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  i.,  p.  178 
"S  Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  i.,  p.  178.     Vol.  xxxi.,  p.  386. 
XN.  Am.  Jour.  Hom.,  Vol.  xxii.,  p.  102. 


238  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

symptoms  with  those  of  his  provers,  and  such  as  were  obtained 
from  books  of  the  old  school,  to  be  brought  into  one  arrange- 
ment. 

The  "Materia  Medica  Pura"  was  translated  into  Italian  by 
Dr.  Roman!  and  published  in  Naples  in  1825-28;  in  1826  it  was 
translated  into  Latin  by  Drs.  Stapf,  Gross  and  Von  Brunnow, 
and  published  by  Arnold  at  Leipsic.  Dr.  Bigel  translated  it 
into  French  in  1828;  and  Dr.  Jourdan  issued  another  French 
translation  in  1834  at  Paris;  in  1877  Dr.  Leon  Simon  again 
made  a  translation  into  the  French.  Dr.  Hempel,  in  1846,  made 
a  translation  which  was  published  by  Radde,  of  New  York.  In 
England,  in  1880,  it  was  translated  by  Dr.  Dudgeon  and  issued 
in  London  by  the  Homoeopathic  Publishing  Co.  in  two  volumes. 
In  1873  Dr.  Dadea  rendered  it  into  Italian,  publishing  it  in 
parts  in  Turin,  Italy.* 

In  an  article  published  in  Stapf 's  Archiv.,  Dr.  Moritz  Muller 
had  already'  pointed  out  the  existence  of  two  factions  in  the 
ranks  of  the  Homoeopaths,  whom  he  called  the  purists  and  the 
liberals.  But  the  most  cordial  relations  yet  existed  between 
them. 

The  Central  Homoepathic  Union,  founded  at  Coethen  in  1829, 
met  on  August  10,  1830,  at  Leipsic.  Everything  passed  oflf 
pleasantly  and  there  was  no  lack  of  friendlj^  feeling  on  the  part 
of  all  present. 

Hahnemann  sent  by  the  hand  of  Stapf  an  essay  upon  the 
treatment  of  chronic  local  diseases  and  particularly  of  phthisis, 
accompanied  by  the  following  letter  if 

"Coethen,  Aug.  5,  1830. 
'  'Dear  Friend  and  Colleague  : 

"  Enclosed  is  the  communication  which  I  would  like  to  make 
to  the  meeting  of  the  loth  of  August.  Let  the  sheet  be  slowly 
read  aloud,  and  if  you  are  going  to  give  a  report  of  the  Congress 
in  the  Archiv,  and  include  in  the  report  this  sheet  as  having 
been  read  before  the  Congress,  you  are  at  liberty  to  do  so. 

"If  after  it  has  been  read,  and  after  other  business,  you 
should  communicate  to  the  meeting  the  enclosed  anonymous 
article  as  though  it  was  by  some  other  person,  you  would  do 

*See  Bibliography  at  end  of  this  book. 

■\Hom  World,  Vol.  xxv.,  p.  210.  "Annals  Brit.  Horn.  Society,"  Vol.  iii., 
P-  254. 


REPORT   OF    CASES    BY    HAHNEMANN.  239 

well.  There  are  probably  some  among  you  who  will  understand 
its  meaning  and  act  accordingly.  But  to  be  serious,  the 
Homoeopathic  physician  must  eventually  resolve  that  he  shall 
no  longer  give  sham  medicines,  but  only  the  active  remedy 
when  and  where  it  is  necessary.  In  this  way  he  will  evade  all 
so  called  prohibitory  laws  against  dispensing  our  own  medicines, 
and  no  criminal  law  court  will  be  able  to  say  a  word. 
"  Yours  very  truly, 

"Sam.  Hahnemann." 

"  Bear  in  mind  that  any  one  who  undertakes  the  treatment  of 
a  chronic  disease  must  always  have  the  Allopathic  prescriptions 
previously  used  before  him;  so  that  in  his  treatment  he  may 
avoid  giving  those  medicines  which  the  Allopath  has  already 
given  before  in  large  doses;  e.  g.,  Sulphur,  when  Sulphur  has 
previously  been  given  to  excess;  Natrium  when  much  Selters- 
water  has  already  been  drunk,  and  Murias  magnesia,  when  the 
patient  has  already  taken  too  many  sea  baths." 

As  this  essay  contains  a  recommendation  for  the  use  of  an 
external  application,  and  as  it  has  been  quite  freely  mentioned 
on  this  account,  it  is  given  here. 

The  whole  essay  was  published  in  Stapf's  Archiv.^  It  is 
not  published  in  the  "  Lesser  Writings." 

After  speaking  of  the  psoric  theory  and  of  the  relation  be- 
tween internal  and  skin  diseases,  he  recommends  the  use  of  a 
plaster  under  the  following  conditions: 

"Now  in  order  to  diminish  the  morbid  projection  of  the  psoric 
affection  upon  the  smaller  and  nobler  organs,  and  to  procure  for 
this  effort  of  the  vital  force  to  keep  the  internal  dyscrasia  in 
abeyance  a  more  extensive  surface  on  which  it  may  expend  its 
virulence,  we  must  apply  to  the  back  something  that  shall  at 
once  check  the  cutaneous  transpiration  and  at  the  same  time  be 
slightly  irritant. 

"This  may  be  accomplished  by  means  of  a  plaster  composed 
of  six  parts  of  Burgundy  pitch  to  one  of  turpentine  mixed  to- 
gether over  a  charcoal  fire,  spread  upon  soft  chamois  leather, 
and  applied  warm  by  a  uniform  close  pressure  to  the  skin.  It 
usually  happens  that  a  fine  rash  accompanied  by  considerable 
itching  is  soon  produced  thereby  on  the  surface  of  the  back. 

*Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  xi.,  p.  34.  Stapf's  Archiv  fin  die  horn.  Heil- 
kunst,  Vol.  ix.,  part  3,  p.  72. 


240  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

"If  in  the  course  of  time  the  itching  should  become  excessive, 
the  plaster  may  be  removed  for  a  few  days  but  then  again  ap- 
plied and  continued.  When  this  artificially  produced  psoric 
afifection  of  a  large  extent  of  skin  is  in  full  operation,  we  shall 
observe  a  great  diminution  in  the  morbid  state  of  the  small, 
noble  organ,  and  the  local  disease  will  thereby  be  rendered  more 
curable  by  the  internal  antipsoric  medicine."  This  was  sent  to 
Stapf  in  the  letter  of  August  5,  1830. 

He  afterwards,  in  the  fifth  edition  of  the  "Organon,"  1833, 
retracted  this  advice  in  the  following  words:*  "Homoeopathy 
is  a  perfectly  simple  system  of  medicine,  remaining  always  fixed 
in  its  principles  as  in  its  practice,  which,  like  the  doctrine 
whereon  it  is  based,  if  rightly  apprehended,  will  be  found  to  be 
so  exclusive  (and  only  in  that  way  serviceable)  that  as  the  doc- 
trine must  be  accepted  in  its  purity  so  it  must  be  purely  prac- 
ticed, and  all  backward  straying  to  the  pernicious  routine  of  the 
old  school  (whose  opposite  it  is  as  day  to  night)  is  totally  in- 
admissible, otherwise  it  ceases  to  deserve  the  honorable  name  of 
Homoeopathy. 

"I  am,  therefore,  sorry  that  I  once  gave  the  advice,  savoring 
of  Allopathy,  to  apply  to  the  back  in  psoric  diseases  a  resinous 
plaster  to  cause  itching,  and  to  employ  the  finest  electrical  sparks 
in  paralytic  affections.  For  as  both  these  appliances  have  seldom 
proved  of  service,  and  have  furnished  the  mongrel  Homceopa- 
thists  with  an  excuse  for  their  Allopathic  transgressions,  I  am 
grieved  I  should  ever  have  proposed  them,  and  I  hereby  solemnly 
retract  thetn — for  this  reason  also,  that,  since  then,  our  Homoeo- 
pathic system  has  advanced  so  near  to  perfection  that  thej-  are 
now  no  longer  required." 

^Dudgeon's  translation  of  the  "Organon,"  London,  1893.  Preface  to 
5th  Edition. 


RIGHT    OF    THE    PHYSICIAN    TO    BE   WELI.    PAID.  24 1 


CHAPTER  XIvVII. 

RIGHT  OF  THE  PHYSICIAN  TO  BE    WELL    PAID  —  "ALLOPATHY"  — 
CENSORSHIP   OF   THE  PRESS. 

On  the  19th  of  May,  1831,  Hahnemann  writes  to  Rummel  as 
follows  in  regard  to  the  right  of  the  physician  to  speedy  and 
generous  payment  for  his  services:* 

"■Dear  Friend  a7id  Colleague:  Your  kind  visit  on  the  loth  of 
April  must,  on  account  of  its  shortness,  be  regaided  more  as  a 
compliment  to  me  than  as  a  full  visit.  Ah,  how  much  we  might 
and  would  have  said  to  one  another  had  we  not  been  disturbed 
by  strangers  and  had  you  not  been  obliged  to  return  so  soon. 
In  order  to  make  up  for  this  there  is  nothing  for  it  but  that  I 
must  have  the  pleasure  of  seeing  you  again  soon,  for  a  longer 
visit,  and  I  will  let  you  fix  your  own  time,  for  any  time  will  be 
agreeable  to  me. 

"  Doubtless  such  a  title  as  that  of  medical  counselor  has  now 
this  advantage,  that  it  enables  the  physician  to  obtain  better 
fees;  and  it  is  particularly  useful  to  the  Homoeopath,  as  it  serves 
to  humiliate  the  enemies  of  his  art;  but  even  were  it  not  so,  it  is 
advisable  for  the  plain  Homoeopathic  doctor  to  attach  so  much 
value  to  his  infinitely  better  mode  of  treatment  that  even  with- 
out any  title  he  should  demand  larger  fees;  at  all  events  he 
should  make  patients  affected  with  chronic  diseases  pay  (before- 
hand) a  monthly  honorarium,  and  take  from  poorer  persons  at 
each  consultation  (and  dispensing  of  medicines)  some  payment 
(were  it  only  a  few  pence,  he  should  take  payment  at  each  visit — 
accipe  dum  do  let). 

"In  this  way  only  is  it  possible  for  the  medical  man  never  to 
go  unremunerated,  and  it  keeps  him  in  good  humor  when  he 
gets  ready  money  for  his  trouble.  Even  these  small  fees,  if  they 
are  paid  at  every  visit  and  never  neglected,  accumulate  unobserv- 
edly  to  a  considerable  sum,  and  the  patient  who  pays  every  time 
scarcely  misses  them  from  his  purse,  because  he  only  parts  with 
them  gradually ;  and  when  he  is  cured  or  leaves  off  before  he 

*Brit.Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  xi.,  p.  68.     Allg.  horn.  Zeit.,  Vol.  xliv.,  p.  19. 


242  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

ought  to,  we  are  done  with  him;  he  has  no  claim  on  us  nor  we 
on  him,  and  he  takes  leave  of  us,  if  not  with  contentment  and 
gratitude,  at  all  events  without  unwillingness,  the  sums  he  has 
gradually  parted  with  are  forgotten  by  him,  and  the  doctor  has 
what  was  justly  his,  and  the  money  collects  in  the  doctor's 
purse  without  any  regret  on  the  part  of  the  patient. 

"  On  the  other  hand,  how  disagreeable  is  it  for  the  physician 
who  has  to  send  in  his  account  at  the  last  when  the  patient  has 
quite  forgotten  his  gradual  recovery  and  the  great  trouble  the 
doctor  has  had,  ut fieri  solet. 

"Since  I  have  commenced  my  successful  mode  of  treatment,  I 
have  never  sent  in  a  demand  after  the  treatment  was  over,  but 
always  done  as  above  stated.  Whenever  the  payment  at  each 
visit  of  the  poorer  classes,  and  the  monthly  payments  of  the 
richer  ones,  shall  be  generally  introduced,  and  patients  not  know 
any  other  method  of  payment,  then  every  one  will  bring  his 
money  with  him  as  a  matter  of  course,  or  will  send  it  every 
month  by  the  post,  and  then  business  will  go  on  without 
grumbling. 

"  If  the  doctor  himself  is  a  good  economist  he  may,  if  he  is  a 
skillful  Homoeopathist,  be  able  to  earn  and  lay  by  something. 

"  When  Gross  was  here  last  I  put  him  up  to  this  plan,  and  he 
cannot  think  enough  of  the  good  effect  it  has  had  on  his  practice 
during  the  last  half  year;  he  has  become  quite  another  man. 

' '  I  could  convince  you  of  all  this  much  more  effectually  by 
word  of  mouth.  He  who  does  not  know  how  to  take  payment 
for  the  assistance  he  dispenses  is  unable  to  form  a  proper  esti- 
mation of  himself  and  of  his  art. 

"In  his  last  letter  written  a  few  days  ago  Stapf  denies  having 
got  from  you  the  article,  'On  Natural  Labor.'  This  varia^is 
lectio  no  doubt  is  owing  to  the  circumstance  that  he  had  for- 
gotten to  read  it  and  seeks  to  excuse  himself.  I  should  like  to 
have  it  again,  for  others  wish  to  see  it.  If  you  are  writing  to 
him  beg  him  to  mention  in  the  Archiv  with  especial  commenda- 
tion the  exemption  of  the  Brunswick  Homoeopathists  from  the 
necessity  of  prescribing  from  the  apothecary's  shop — as  he  told 
Gross  of  Juterbogk — in  order  to  induce  others  to  follow  this 
example.  Farewell  till  we  meet  again,  which  I  trust  will  be 
soon,  and  believe  me, 

"Yours  mo.st  sincerely, 

"Sam.  Hahnemann." 


PAMPHLET    ON    ALLOPATHY.  243 

In  the  earlier  part  of  1831  Hahnemann  wrote  a  pamphlet  en- 
titled: "Allopathy;  A  Word  of  Warning  to  all  Sick  Persons."* 
It  was  published  in  Leipsic,  by  Baumgartner.  This  was  an  ar- 
raignment of  the  prejudiced  and  irrational  methods  of  the  Allo- 
pathic school.  The  compiler  of  this  has  an  original  letter  of 
Hahnemann's  written  regarding  the  publication  of  this  pamphlet, 
and  which  plainly  shows  the  jealous  spirit  with  which  Hahne- 
mann was  watched  by  the  Allopathic  authorities  at  that  time. 
It  is  as  follows: 

'^''Most  Honorable,  the  Privy  Counselor  and  Favo7'er!  " 

"  I  accept  the  conditions  offered  me  by  your  bookstore  without 
reserve,  and  only  beg  for  the  last  correction  if  I  can  possibly 
get  it. 

"But  as  this  book  reveals  to  the  ordinary  physicians  ex- 
tremel}'  unwelcome  truths,  I  take  the  liberty  to  ask  your  per- 
sonal especial  protection  for  it,  that  the  printing  may  not 
be  hindered  by  the  Allopathic  physicians.  Therefore  I  put 
the  MSS.  in  your  hands  first,  and  do  not  address  it  simply  to 
your  bookstore." 

"Your  obedient, 

"Sam.  Hahnemann." 

''Coeihen,  igthjune,  18 jr.'" 

In  this  essay  Hahnemann  caricatures  and  turns  the  Allopathic 
system  into  ridicule.  He  says  in  regard  to  the  plan  of  putting 
from  two  to  a  dozen  medicines  in  one  prescription:  "According 
to  that  old,  so-called  art  of  medicine,  so  repugnant  to  common 
sense,  there  should  be  more  than  two,  at  least  three,  different 
things  in  an  artistical  prescription;  apparently,  in  order  that  the 
physician  who  prescribes  lege  artis  from  the  use  of  such  pre- 
scriptions for  diseases  may  be  deprived  of  all  chance  of  ascer- 
taining which  of  the  different  ingredients  was  useful  or  which 
did  harm,  and  may  also  never  see  or  be  taught  by  experience 
what  particular  effects  each  of  the  several  ingredients  of  the  pre- 
scription, each  simple  medicinal  substance  therein,  produces  on 
the  human  health  in  order  to  be  able  to  employ  it  with  certainty 
in  diseases!" 

' '  This,  therefore,  is  an  art  the  professors  of  which  have  and  wish 
to  have  no  knowledge  of  all  their  tools  !     Among  the  very  meanest 

*  Ivesser  Writings,  New  York,  p.  736. 


244  J.lTE   OF   HAHNEMANN. 

of  arts  there  does  not  exist  one  such  as  this.  The  medical  art 
of  the  old  school  alone  gives  an  unheard  of  example  of  the  kindf 

"And  yet  these  gentlemen  boast  so  loudly,  notwithstanding 
their  incredible  irrationality,  of  being  the  only  rational  phy- 
sicians. 

"Of  this  stamp,  dear  sick  people,  are  all  the  ordinar}-  physi- 
cians. Of  such  alone  do  the  medical  authorities  of  all  civilized 
lands  consist.  These  alone  sit  on  the  medical  judgment  seat  and 
condemn  all  that  is  better,  which,  whatever  adv^antage  it  may 
be  of  to  mankind,  is  opposed  to  their  antiquated  system! 

"These  alone  are  the  superintendents  and  directors  of  the 
countless  hospitals  and  infirmaries  filled  with  hundreds  and 
thousands  of  patients  pining  in  vain  for  health!  Of  such  alone 
are  the  body  physicians  of  princes  and  ministers  of  state!  Of 
such  only  are  the  ordinary  professors  of  medicine  in  all  univer- 
sities! 

"With  such  routine  practitioners  alone,  of  great  and  small 
degree,  do  our  towns  swarm;  from  the  celebrities  who  use  up 
two  pairs  of  horses  daily  in  swift-rolling  gilded  chariots  in  order 
to  pay  visits  of  a  couple  of  minutes'  duration  to  sixty,  eighty 
or  more  patients  down  to  the  crowd  of  low  practitioners  who, 
in  worn  out  clothes,  must  exert  their  legs  to  pester  their  patients 
with  frequent  visits  and  numerous  prescriptions." 

The  whole  essay  is  a  rare  example  of  delightful  satire. 

At  this  time  there  was  a  censorship  of  the  press,  and  the 
Allopathic  physicians  used  every  means  to  prevent  the  publica- 
tion of  Homoeopathic  literature.  Hahnemann  was,  as  may  be 
seen  by  the  above  letter,  obliged  to  use  great  caution  in  printing 
his  books  and  pamphlets. 

As  a  sample  of  this  unfair  and  bigoted  censorship  it  may  be 
stated  that  in  1831  an  Allopathic  physician  in  Coethen  published 
in  the  Cothener  Zeihing,  the  village  paper,  a  bitter  attack  upon 
Hahnemann  and  his  treatment  of  the  cholera.  When  Hahne- 
mann, desiring  to  respond,  sent  an  article  to  the  same  paper  it 
was  refused  because  the  censor  of  the  press  was  a  personal  friend 
of  the  Allopathic  doctor.  Hahnemann  then  published  his  de- 
fence in  Magdeburg. 

Hahnemann  sent  his  treatment  of  cholera  to  the  Prcussischc 
Staats  Zeitung,  but  the  Berlin  censor  would  not  permit  it  to  be 
inserted.     Dr.  Kiesselbach,  of  Hanau,  wished  an  account  of  the 


HOMCEOPATHIC   TREATMENT    OF   CHOLERA.  245 

Homoeopathic  treatment  of  croup  to  be  published  in  a  Kassel 
paper,  but  this  was  vetoed  by  the  censor.  In  Raab,  in  Hungary, 
while  the  cholera  was  raging,  certain  of  the  people  who  had 
heard  of  the  Homoeopathic  success  in  the  disease  wished  to 
insert  a  notice  in  the  paper  asking  Homoeopathic  physicians  to 
go  there,  but  it  was  not  permitted.*  Every  effort  possible  was 
made  to  keep  the  facts  of  Homoeopathy  from  the  people. 


CHAPTER  XLVIII. 

CHOLERA    IN    1831-32 — HAHNEMANN'S    OPINION    op    BLEEDING — 
HOMCEOPATHIC    TREATMENT    OF    CHOLERA. 

In  1 83 1  the  cholera  appeared  in  Russia,  coming  over  the 
border  the  latter  part  of  July.  Of  course  the  medical  profession 
were  busy  inventing  new  remedies  for  the  scourge.  Among 
those  recommended  were  Atcruin  muj'iaticum ,  oxygen  gas,  char- 
coal, Qumhie.  Ameke  says  :t  Then  th<:rre  were  the  absorb- 
ents "to  absorb  the  poison  out  of  the  primse  vise;"  "  the  ab- 
sorbents are  coming  into  favor."  People  read  with  terror  that 
"  in  the  corpses  of  those  who  died  of  cholera  vessels  gorged  with 
blood  were  to  be  found  in  the  right  ventricle  of  the  heart  and 
the  vena  cava,  also  in  the  lungs,  liver,  etc."  We  say  they  read 
"  with  terror,"  for  where  blood  was  thus  found  congested  in  the 
corpses,  on  scientific  principles  the  patients  must  be  bled  during 
life.  But  "Science"  could  surely  hardly  go  as  far  as  to  bleed  in 
cases  of  cholera. 

Doubt  did  not  last  long  on  this  point,  for  soon  after  the 
notices  from  Russia  appeared  we  read:  "  A  vein  is  at  once  and 
without  delay  to  be  opened  and  as  much  blood  taken  from  the 
patient  as  seems  suitable  to  his  condition."  This  remedy  was 
useful  in  nearly  all  cases.  Calomel  and  Opium  were  to  be  given. 
In  another  article  blood-letting,  leeches,  cupping,  mustard  plas- 
ters were  recommended.  Emetics  were  mentioned.  One  Dr. 
Meyer  suggested  that  as  Belladoyma  was  prophylactic  for  scarlet 
fever  it  might  also  be  for  cholera. 

Among   other   articles   recommended  were   prohibition  from 

*Ameke's  "History  of  Homoeopathy,"  p.  251. 
fAmeke's  "History  of  Homoeopathy,"  p.  235. 


246  LIFE    OF   HAHNEMANN. 

anything  to  drink;  the  use  of  Zinc,  Bismuth,  Musk  with  Cam- 
phor, Ipecacuanha,  Valerian,  Sal  volatile.  Hartshorn,  Natron  carbon, 
Menih.,  Piperit.,  Arnica,  Colombo,  Cascarilla  with  Naphtha,  and 
Opium,  Tinct.  Aromaiica,  Calam.,  Arom.,  cold  douches,  leeches, 
emetics  and  Cinchona. 

Then  followed  a  pamphlet  war  upon  the  various  pathological 
fancies  advocated  by  the  professors  and  the  doctors.  More  than 
three  hundred  pamphlets  and  some  books  were  written  upon  the 
subject,  and  in  the  most  of  them  the  free,  continued  and  persist- 
ent practice  of  venesection  was  advocated.  It  was  bleed,  bleed, 
open  a  vein  freely;  bleed,  leech,  ad  nauseam.  This  was  a  period 
of  very  scientific  insanity.  In  the  meantime  the  poor  victims 
persisted  in  dying. 

One  of  the  Leipsic  Faculty  of  Medicine,  a  Dr.  Moritz  Hasper, 
in  Huf eland' s  Joiitnaliox  September,  1831,  said  that  small  bleed- 
ings were  of  no  use,  that  "  a  large  opening  must  be  made  in  a 
vein  in  order  that  the  blood  may  flow  out  in  a  free  stream,  if  the 
patient  is  to  be  freely  relieved."  "  Bleed  freely  "  is  repeated  at 
least  ten  times  in  this  truly  scientific  pamphlet.  Leeches,  bleed- 
ing, even  the  application  of  a  red  hot  iron  to  the  stomach  is 
recommended.* 

As  early  as  the  year  1784,  Hahnemann  in  the  "Guide  to  the 
Cure  of  Old  Sores,"  denounced  blood-letting.  In  the  transla- 
tion of  Cullen  in  1790,  he  attacks  the  habit  of  bleeding. 

Early  in  1792,  the  Emperor  lycopold  of  Austria,  who  had 
reigned  since  1790,  and  who  by  his  love  for  peace  had  greatly 
endeared  himself  to  his  subjects,  unexpectedly  died.  Hahne- 
mann at  that  time  lived  in  Gotha,  where  the  newspaper  Der 
Anzeiger  was  published.  The  editor,  Dr.  Becker,  as  has  been 
stated,  was  an  acquaintance  of  Hahnemann.  In  this  paper,  Nos. 
137.  138,  (1792,)  appeared  an  account  of  the  post  mortem  upon 
the  Emperor,  in  which  it  was  stated  that  a  "semi-purulent  exuda- 
tion of  about  a  pound  weight  was  found  in  the  left  pleura. 

In  the  Anzeiger  for  March  31,  1792,  Hahnemann  thus  criti- 
cises the  treatment  of  this  great  man.  He  says:  "The  report 
states  'his  physician,  Lagusius,  observed  high  fever  and  swell- 
ing of  the  abdomen  early  on  February  28,'  he  combatted  the 
malady  by  venesection,  and  as  this  produced  no  amelioration, 
three  more  venesections  were  performed  without  relief.     Science 

*Ameke's  "History  of  Homoeopathy,"  p.  239. 


HOMCEOPATHIC   TREATMENT   OF   CHOLERA.  247 

must  ask  why  a  second  venesection  was  ordered  when  the  first 
had  produced  no  amelioration?  How  could  he  order  a  third, 
and,  good  heavens,  how  a  fourth!  when  there  had  been  no 
amelioration  after  the  preceding  ones?  How  could  he  tap  the 
vital  fluid  four  times  in  twenty-four  hours,  always  without 
relief,  from  a  debilitated  man  who  had  been  worn  out  by  anxiety 
of  mind  and  long-continued  diarrhoea?     Science  is  aghast!"* 

Hahnemann  continues:  "The  clinical  record  of  the  physician 
in  ordinary,  lyagusius,  says:  'The  monarch  was  on  the  28th  of 
February  attacked  with  rheumatic  fever  (what  symptoms  of  a 
rheumatic  character  had  he?)  and  a  chest  affection  (which  of  the 
numerous  chest  affections,  very  few  of  wJiich  are  able  to  stand 
bleeding;  let  us  note  that  he  does  not  say  it  was  pleurisy,  which 
he  would  have  done  to  excuse  the  copious  venesections  if  he  had 
been  convinced  that  it  was  this  affection),  and  we  immediately 
tried  to  mitigate  the  violence  of  the  malady  by  bleeding  and 
other  needful  remedies  (Germany,  Europe,  has  a  right  to  ask, 
which?*). 

"On  the  29th  the  fever  increased  (after  the  bleeding!  and  yet), 
three  more  venesections  were  effected,  whereupon  some  (other 
reports  say  distinctly  no)  improvement  followed,  but  the  ensuing 
night  was  very  restless  and  weakened  the  monarch  (just  think! 
it  was  the  night  and  not  the  four  bleedings  which  so  weakened 
the  monarch,  and  Herr  Lagusius  was  able  to  assert  this  posi- 
tively), who  on  the  ist  of  March  began  to  vomit  with  violent 
retching  and  threw  up  all  he  took  (nevertheless  his  doctors  left 
him  so  that  no  one  was  present  at  his  death,  and  indeed  after 
this  one  of  them  pronounced  him  out  of  danger).  At  3:30  in 
the  afternoon  he  expired,  while  vomiting,  in  presence  of  the 
empress." 

This  violent  attack  resulted  in  a  discussion  upon  the  case 
among  the  German  physicians,  in  which  the  course  of  Hahne- 
mann was  very  generally  condemned. 

After  this  time  Hahnemann  protested  in  his  writings  against 
bloodletting,  which  practice  was  still  continued.  He  was  even 
denounced  as  a  murderer  because  he  denied  his  patients  the 
"benefits"  of  bleeding. 

His  attitude  also  lost  him  the  friendship  of  several  of  his  pro- 
fessional friends.    In  1809  he  says:t  "The  principal  manoeuvre  of 

*Ameke's  "History  of  Homceopatiiy, "  p.  88. 
t  "  Lesser  Writings,"  New  York,  p.  537. 


248  LIFE   OF    HAHNEMANN. 

the  humoral  school  consisted  in  the  evacuation  of  bad  blood 
(bleeding  mania)  and  in  the  expulsion  of  the  impure  fluids  by 
the  mouth  and  anus.  How  ?  Did  they  pretend  to  let  out  the 
impure  blood  only?  What  magician's  wand  could  separate,  as 
through  a  sieve,  the  depraved  from  the  good  blood  withift  the 
blood  vessels,  so  that  only  the  bad  could  be  drawn  off  and  the 
good  remain  ?  What  head  is  so  rudely  organized  as  to  believe 
that  they  could  effect  this  ?  Sufficient  for  them  that  streams  of 
blood  were  spilt — of  that  vital  fluid  for  which  even  Moses  showed 
so  much  respect,  and  that  justly.  The  more  refined  humor- 
alists,  in  addition  to  the  impurities  in  the  blood,  alleged,  besides, 
the  existence  of  a  pretended,  almost  universal,  plethora,  as  an 
excuse  for  their  frightful,  merciless  bloodlettings;  they  also 
gave  out  that  these  acted  derivatively,  depressed  the  tone,  and 
ascribed  many  other  subtle  scientific  effects  to  them." 

All  his  life  he  continued  the  bitter  enemy  to  bleeding,  and 
whatever  may  be  presented  to  the  contrary,  it  is  most  certainly 
due  to  his  influence  that  bleeding  is  abolished  in  the  ranks  of 
the  medical  profession. 

Of  course  Hahnemann  opposed  this  method  of  bloodletting  in 
the  cholera. 

The  Homoeopathic  physicians  began  to  treat  this  terrible 
cholera  according  to  the  principles  of  their  system.  Dr.  Peter- 
sen, of  Pensa,  treated  from  July  9th  to  30th  68  cases,  of  whom 
14  died.  He  used  Ipecac  20th,  Chamo7nilla  and  Arseyiiaim  30th 
dilution.  Dr.  Arnold,  of  Russia,  was  also  successful.  Dr. 
Schubert,  of  Leipsic,  in  1830  recommended  I'eratriim,  Ipecac, 
Arsenic,  Chamomilla.  Dr.  Preu,  of  Nuremberg,  spoke  o{  Arsenic 
and  Veratriun. 

Dr.  Bakody,  a  Homceopathist  of  Raab,  in  Hungary,  was  much 
more  successful  than  the  Allopaths.  Of  1501  patients  treated 
Allopathically  640  died.  Dr.  Bakody  treated  154  cases  of  real 
cholera  and  lost  but  six  cases.* 

The  inhabitants  wished  to  appeal  through  the  papers  for  more 
Homoeopathic  physicians.  The  Protomedicus  of  Hungary,  Dr. 
Lenhoscek,  did  not  think  this  appeal  suitable  for  publication, 
and,  as  censor,  refused  to  permit  its  publication  in  the  news- 
papers! After  the  epidemic  was  over  Bakody  told  a  colleague, 
Dr.  Ant.  Schmit,  of  the  treatment  and  its  results,  and  he,  against 

*Anieke,  p.  249.     Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  i.,  p.  58. 


HOMCEOPATHIC    TREATMENT   OP   CHOLERA.  249 

Dr.  Bakody's  wish,  sent  an  article  to  'Cd^  Allgemeine  A7izeiger  on 
the  subject.  The  county  physicus,  Dr.  Joseph  v.  Balogh,  and 
the  town  physicus,  Dr.  Ant.  Karpff,  replied,  stating  in  words  of 
most  insolent  denunciation  that  Dr.  Bakody  basely  lied,  calling 
him  all  sorts  of  pretty  names.  Bakody  produced  in  answer  112 
legally  attested  certificates  relating  to  the  154  cholera  patients 
he  had  treated,  of  whom  but  six  died.  And  his  witnesses  were 
from  the  most  reliable  and  influential  citizens  of  the  town.* 

Dr.  Seider,  in  Russia,  treated  109  Homoeopathically  and  lost 
but  twenty-three.  Of  ninety-three  treated  AUopathically,  sixty- 
nine  died.  The  percentage  in  Vienna  of  deaths  was:  Allopathic, 
thirty-one  per  cent.;  Homoeopathic,  only  eight. f 

lyCtters  and  reports  came  from  every  quarter  to  Coethen  with 
the  glad  message:  "Homoeopathy  has  triumphed  over  the 
cholera."  Thomas  Count  Nadasdy  presented  a  full  report  (17th 
September,  1831)  from  Daka,  in  Hungary,  beginning  with  these 
words:  "When  the  cholera  broke  out  in  Daka  no  medical  aid 
could  be  obtained  from  Papa,  on  account  of  the  prevalence  of 
•cholera  at  that  place;  being  unwilling  to  see  my  subjects  die 
without  making  an  effort  to  save  them  I  tried  the  experiment 
of  curing  the  disease  with  spirits  of  camphor,  recommended  by 
Dr.  Hahnemann,  and  by  the  blessing  of  Providence  my  efforts 
were  crowned  with  perfect  success.  Of  161  cholera  patients  at 
Daka,  to  whom  spirits  of  camphor  were  administered,  only 
fourteen  died;  namely,  eight  who  solicited  assistance  in  the  last 
stage  of  the  disease,  and  seven  who,  by  improper  living  after 
three  or  four  relapses,  could  not  be  saved.  This  statement  can 
be  proved  by  more  than  seventy  sworn  witnesses.";}: 

In  Asterwettingen,  near  Magdeburg,  out  of  800  inhabitants 
■eighty  were  attacked.  Without  a  physician,  they  treated  each 
other  with  Camphor  and  cold  water,  according  to  Hahnemann's 
instructions,  and  sixty  of  the  patients  recovered. 

There  was  no  propounding  of  ridiculous  scientific  (?) 
pathology,  no  recommending  of  marvellous  compounds  on  the 
part  of  the  Homoeopaths. 

Independently  the  one  of  the  other,  judging  by  the  symptoms 
of  the  disease  and  their  knowledge  of  the  action  of  medicines 

*Ameke,  p.  250. 

■\ Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  i.,  p.  58. 

4:  Fischer.  Traus.,  "Biograpiiisches  Denkmal,"  p.  56. 


250  LIFE    OF   HAHNEMANN. 

upon  the  well,  the  four  or  five  medicines  each  thought  about  and 
used  were  the  same.  The  principle  that  Hahnemann  taught 
was  proven  and  found  not  wanting.  His  followers,  knowing  the 
drugs  that  would  produce  similar  symptoms  to  those  of  the 
cholera,  applied  those  drugs  when  the  cholera  came  with  suc- 
cess. It  was  not  guesswork;  just  the  application  of  a  la,w! 
Arsenic,  Veratrum,  Ipecac,  Camphor,  Cupriwi — the  same  reme- 
dies that  have  since  also  proven  themselves  in  other  cholera  epi- 
demics when  given  in  accord  with  this  law. 


CHAPTER  XLIX. 

HAHNEMANN'S    ADVICE    FOR   TREATMENT    OF    CHOLERA. 

The  cholera  advent  seemed  to  restore  Hahnemann  to  the  fresh- 
ness and  vigor  of  life  of  a  young  man.  It  was  with  wonderful 
acuteness  that  he  described  the  symptoms  and  phenomena  of 
this  disease.  His  marvellous  knowledge  of  the  effects  of  drugs 
on  the  human  body  enabled  him  to  determine  according  to  the 
Homoeopathic  principle  those  that  would  be  of  service  in  this 
terrible  scourge. 

This  is  the  more  remarkable,  as  at  this  time  he  had  never  had 
an  opportunity  of  personally  examining  any  actual  cases. 

In  this  connection  the  following  story  well  illustrates  this 
knowledge  of  his  materia  medica:*  "  A  gentleman  consulted 
him  about  one  of  his  family,  suffering  from  very  severe  illness, 
with  cerrain  very  marked  symptoms.  Hahnemann  heard  him  to 
the  end;  'the  patient  is  suffering  from  a  medicinal  disease,'  and 
he  named  the  drug.  The  gentleman  was  certain  that  the  patient 
was  not  so  suffering,  and  had  made  no  use  of  that  drug.  But 
Hahnemann  was  right,  as  was  proved  upon  inquiry." 

Hahnemann  soon  began  to  take  an  active  part  in  advising  his 
disciples.  He  published  articles  in  the  papers,  and  issued  pam- 
phlets. The  following  letter,  written  to  Dr.  Stapf,  December  27, 
1830,  well  shows  his  feelings  upon  the  Allopathic  treatment  of 
the  epidemic.     He  says-.f 

*  Horn.  Times,  London,  Vol.  ii.,  p.  335. 

■\ Honi.  World,  Wo\.  xxv.,  p.  212.  "Annals  Brit.  Horn.  Society,"  Vol. 
iii.,  p.  254. 


ADVICE    FOR    TREATMENT   OP   CHOLERA.  25 1 

"It  certainly  looks  ill  that  the  many  indubitable  reports  in 
the  papers  about  the  marvelous  curative  powers  of  Homoeopathy 
(^and  of  Veratnini)  in  cholera  have  not  yet  reached  the  ears  of 
Nicholas  in  particular,  but  it  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  they 
will  eventually  do  so.  The  great,  infinitely  good  Spirit  who 
cares  for  the  fate  of  every  mite  will  also  with  mighty  hand 
silently  bring  about  the  establishment  of  that  great  affair  which 
is  so  intimately  connected  with  the  well  being  of  sick  mankind 
hitherto  so  neglected,  though  it  may  not  be  perceived  how  all  is 
ordained. 

"Traditional  medicine  and  surgery  is  a  much  too  shamefully 
cruel  business.  Just  read,  for  example,  how  Hasper,  Kreuzing 
of  Leipsic's  nephew,  in  the  face  of  the  Homceopathists,  teaches 
how  to  mistreat  cholera  and  make  it  fatal  with  bloodletting  to 
30  ounces,  quantities  of  leeches,  and  Calomel  to  the  extent  of 
three  or  four  drachms,  on  a  false  theory  and  after  the  example, 
as- he  says,  of  the  best  physicians  in  the  world — the  E^iglish.  Is 
that  not  enough  to  rouse  the  anger  of  the  Homceopathists  ?  I 
would  that  Attomyr  were  the  man  to  raise  his  voice  against  the 
Allopathic  murderers,  for  the  reviews  of  Allopathic  pamphlets  as 
they  have  hitherto  appeared  in  your  Archiv,  written  in  a  mild, 
deferential,  gentle  manner,  do  not  appear  to  me  calculated  to 
stir  up  the  deaf,  infamous  rogues.  The  cautious,  timid  com- 
ments of  our  Homoeopathic  reviewers  are  of  no  use;  they  have 
no  more  effect  on  them  than  so  many  flea  bites.  Can  anything 
worse  befall  us  than  that  we  should  be  deprived  of  all  our  civil 
and  natural  rights  if  we  were  to  proclaim  aloud  their  injustice, 
give  them  literary  blows,  and  make  war  to  the  knife  on  the  mur- 
derous gang  ? 

"They  must  be  taught  to  fear  our  assaults,  which  should  give 
the  death  blow  to  their  false  art.  They  must  be  made  to  tremble 
before  us,  otherwise  we  shall  make  no  way  and  our  immense 
superiority  will  never  be  acknowledged;  we  shall  never  gain 
any  honor,  nor  induce  the  public  to  regard  them  with  well- 
merited  horror  and  disgust. 

"  I  entreat  our  fellow- workers  to  bestir  themselves  and  do  their 
utmost  to  demonstrate  the  superiority  of  our  divine  art  by  stout 
resistance  and  attack,  and  to  expose  the  miserable  nakedness  of 
these  destroyers  of  mankind.  If  I  were  thirty  years  younger  I 
would  undertake  to  do  this  unaided,  and  none  would  escape  my 


252  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

death-dealing  blows;  they  would  no  longer  write  in  their 
wretched  journals;  they  would  be  reduced  to  silence.  But  now 
I  may  fairly  expect  that  I  might  relinquish  this  duty  to  my  vigor- 
ous disciples.  But  I  see  that  I  am  mistaken.  But  now  I  am 
near  the  completion  of  my  seventy-sixth  year,  I  can  no  longer 
wield  the  controversial  club;  I  have,  at  least  I  think  I  have, 
with  great  labor  built  up  my  art  on  irrefragable  pillars. 

"  But  to  drive  the  rascally,  conceited  rogues  out  of  the  temple 
of  yEsculapius  with  scorpion- whips — nothing  else  will  do — is  a 
task  which  ought  not  to  be  imposed  on  me. 

"  Would  to  God  some  man  would  arise  among  us  with  head, 
heart  and  mighty  arm  who  would  devote  his  life  to  this  second 
urgently  needful  work  as  I  have  mine  to  the  first,  the  foundation 
of  Homoeopathy!" 

Again,  writing  to  Stapf,  in  a  letter  dated  August  5,  1S31. 
Hahnemann  says:*  "  Preu  of  Nurnberg  pleases  me  much.  I 
thank  you  for  sending  me  his  essay. f  As  long  as  the  Allopaths 
represented  to  us  (without  giving  any  trustworthy  picture  of 
the  disease)  that  cholera  is  a  compound  of  vomiting  and  purging, 
so  long  we  poor  Homoeopaths  at  a  distance  had  to  regard  Vera- 
truni  and  Arse?iicas  the  specific  remedies  for  it.  But  the  faithful 
description  by  a  Homoeopath  has  taught  us  that  its  character  is 
quite  different.  It  is  a  tonic,  spasmodic  diathesis  of  all  the  sys- 
tems, spheres  and  tissues  of  the  organism,  which  only  towards 
the  end  of  life  passes  into  convulsions  and  paralysis,  and  then 
there  follows  watery  vomiting  and  diarrhoea,  and  that  only  in 
some  cases;  nothing  of  the  sort  is  to  be  seen  in  most  cases,  but 
only  rapid  death. 

"Such  being  the  case  neither  Veratnmi  nor  Arse?iic  can  be  of 
much  use.  Schreter  writes  me  from  Lemberg,  where  he  arrived 
on  the  15th  of  July,  that  he  was  able  to  do  some,  but  not  much, 
good  with  Verairum,  and  when  it  did  no  good  then  Camphor 
was  successful  (when  he  wrote  he  had  just  received  my  essay  on 
Camphor) . 

"  Two  days  ago  I  was  told  by  an  eye  witness  from  Prague 
that  when  the  cholera   raged    in    Odessa,  some  months    since, 

*  Horn.  World,  Vol. -Kx^v.,  p.  417;  "Annals  Brit.  Horn.  Society,"  Vol.  iii., 
p.  7'. 

fWhat  Have  We  to  Fear  From  Cholera  Morbus  ?"  He  recommends 
Arsenic  in  this. 


ADVICE   I^OR   TREATMENT   OP  CHOLERA.  253 

and  the  doctors  were  unable  to  do  anything  serviceable,  they 
only  rubbed  the  patients  with  Camphor,  which  restored  them  to 
health;  he  himself  had  assisted  to  rub  nine  of  the  cases,  and  all 
the  nine  recovered.     Do  we  need  any  further  testimony. 

"My  pamphlet,*  which  you  are  familiar  with,  has  been  re- 
fused insertion  in  the  public  papers  by  the  medical  authorities  of 
Vienna  and  Berlin.  In  Berlin  a  bookseller  is  about  to  print  it 
with  Stuber's  preface.  I  have  sent  to  Stuber  (as  he  has  written 
a  great  deal  about  the  malicious  comments  upon  the  large  doses 
of  Camphor)  the  enclosed  explanation  to  be  added  to  his  preface, 
which  I  beg  you  to  read  aloud  at  the  meeting  on  the  tenth  of 
August  in  place  of  my  usual  communication. 

"  I  have  been  asked  by  a  Leipsic  publisher  for  an  enlargement 
of  this  essay. t  It  will  appear  in  a  few  days,  published  by 
Gluck.  I  did  it  not  long  ago.  The  price  he  will  sell  it  at  will 
be  a  groschen.  I  have  put  in  it  everything  useful  for  the  public 
to  know,  but  I  have  left  out  the  scientific  matter. 

The  pamphlet  which  Hahnemann  mentions  in  the  above  letter 
was  entitled  "  Cure  and  Prevention  of  the  Asiatic  Cholera."  It 
was  originally  published  in  the  Archiv  der  horn.  Heilkunst,  vol. 
xi.,  part  I,  page  122.  It  was  dated  "  Coethen,  Sept.  10,  1831," 
and  is  signed  "Dr.  Samuel  Hahnemann,  Hofrath."  It  may 
also  be  found  translated  in  the  Lesser  Writings. 

In  this  he  recommends  Camphor  as  the  principal  remedy,  but 
says  it  must  be  used  in  the  first  stage  and  as  a  household  remedy 
before  there  is  time  to  summon  a  physician  and  while  awaiting 
his  arrival.  He  says:  "In  the  first  stage,  accordingly,  the 
patient  must  get  as  often  as  possible  (at  least  every  five  minutes) 
a  drop  of  Camphor  (made  with  one  ounce  of  Camphor  to  twelve 
of  alcohol)  on  a  lump  of  sugar  or  in  a  spoonful  of  water.  Some 
spirit  of  Camphor  must  be  taken  in  the  hollow  of  the  hand  and 
rubbed  into  the  skin  of  the  arms,  legs  and  chest  of  the  patient; 
he  must  also  get  a  clyster  of  half  a  pint  of  warm  water  mingled 
with  two  full  teaspoonfuls  of  spirit  of  Camphor,  and  from  time 
to  time  some  Camphor  may  be  allowed  to  evaporate  on  a  hot 
iron  so  that  if  the  mouth  should  be  closed  by  trismus,  and  he 
can  sw  illow  nothing,  he  may  draw  in  enough  of  Camphor  vapor 
with  the  breath." 

*  "Cure  and  Prevention  of  Asiatic  Cholera." 

t"  Appeal  to  Thinking  Philanthropists  Respecting  the  Mode  of  Propaga- 
tion of  Asiatic  Cholera."     See  "  Lesser  Writings." 


254  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

It  will  be  seen  that  he  gives  the  CMnphor  in  quite  large  doses, 
and  because  he  was  criticised  for  it  he  wrote  an  explanation,  of 
which  he  speaks  in  the  previous  letter  as  there  enclosing  to 
Stapf.  Stapf  published  this  in  the  Archiv,  vol.  xi.,  part  i,  p. 
ICO.  Hahnemann  says  that  the  reason  he  gave  Camphor  in  large 
doses  is  that  the  effect  to  be  produced  is  an  Allopathic  and  not  a 
Homoeopathic  one.  A  palliative  action  must  be  at  once  pro- 
duced or  the  patient  will  die  before  the  Homoeopathic  medicine 
has  time  to  act. 

Dr.  Boenninghausen,  in  September,  1831,  published  at  Munster 
this  article  in  a  small  pamphlet,  and  with  it  another  letter  ad- 
dressed to  him  by  Hahnemann  and  dated  September  18,  1831. 
He  also  makes  some  original  suggestions.  This  is  really  another 
edition  of  the  Hahnemann  pamphlet.     He  says  in  the  preface: 

"The  account  given  in  No.  210  of  the  Westphalian  Mercury 
about  the  .remedy  discovered  by  Dr.  Hahnemann  for  Asiatic 
Cholera,  was  copied  from  No.  235  of  the  Prussian  States  Gazette, 
because  I  had  not  at  hand  then  the  Gotha  German  General  Ad- 
vertiser, which,  under  date  of  20tli  August,  contains  the  un- 
garbled  essay  of  this  indefatigable  investigator. 

"I  have  just  received  an  original  essay  of  the  date  of  Septem- 
ber 10,  and,  therefore,  I  presume  still  more  complete,  and  ac- 
companying it  was  a  letter  from  the  Hofrath  himself.  Said 
letter  was  dated  September  i8th,  and  it  contained  much  addi- 
tional valuable  information  respecting  this  frightful  disease.  So 
I  deem  it  my  duty  to  publish  both  of  them. 

"C.  v.  BCENNINGHAUSEN." 

''Minister,  Sept.  2j,  iSji.'" 

Hahnemann's  article  was  also  published  in  the  form  of  a  tract 
and  freely  distributed  in  Vienna,  Hungary,  Berlin,  Magdeburg, 
and  other  places  where  the  cholera  was  active. 

Hahnemann  in  a  letter  addressed  to  Dr.  Schreter  in  Lemburg, 
thus  speaks  of  the  cholera:* 

"CoETHEN,  19TH  Dec,  1831. 
*'Dear  Colleague: 

"I  have  had  no  opportunity  of  treating  fully  developed  cholera 
myself,  but  have  often,  by  advice  and  directions,  been  enabled 

*  Brit.  Jour.  Hont.,  Vol.  vi.,  p.  413;  also  Horn.  Times,  Loudon,  Vol.  i.,  p. 
84;  Kirby's  Am.  Jour.  Hom.,  Vol.  iii.,  p-Sj;  Stapf 's  Archiv,  1848,  Vol.  iii., 
part  3. 


ADVICE   FOR   TREATMENT  OF   CHOLERA.  255 

to  Stifle  it  in  the  bud.  At  least  30,000  copies  of  my  directions 
have  been  circulated  among  the  inhabitants  of  Vienna,  Hungary, 
Berlin  and  Magdeburg,  and  many  thousands  have  been  saved, 
when  each,  the  instant  he  was  attacked  witli  cholera,  had  ad- 
ministered to  him  by  his  friend  a  drop  of  spirit  of  Camphor  every 
five  minutes,  and  was  well  washed  over  head,  neck  and  chest 
with  a  solution  of  Campho7  (i  to  12)  by  means  of  the  hand,  and 
in  less  than  an  hour  he  was  quite  well,  without  secondary  suffer- 
ings, as  if  nothing  had  happened  to  him. 

"By  this  means  as  I  said,  according  to  the  accounts  I  have 
received,  many  thousands  have  been  saved  in  secret  without  the 
knowledge  of  a  physician  or  of  the  neighbors  in  the  house. 
Now,  as  by  my  experience,  Camphor  vapor  is  the  only  trust- 
worthy means  of  annihilating  the  probable  animated  miasma  of 
cholera,  it  is  easy  to  understand  how  the  cholera  was  so  rapidly 
extinguished  by  its  means  in  Vienna,  Berlin  and  Magdeburg. 
This  extinction  of  cholera  in  the  first  quarter  of  an  hour  by 
Camphor  is  available  only  in  the  acute  attacks  of  cholera,  and  as 
I  have  said  only  in  the  first  hour  in  which  the  aid  of  a  physician 
cannot  be  obtained,  and  the  disease  is  still  in  its  stage  of  tonic 
cramp;  when,  however,  this,  as  is  soon  the  case,  passes  into  the 
stage  of  relaxation  and  of  clonic  cramps,  then  the  Homoeopathic 
physician  can  still  do  good,  though  with  difiiculty  enough,  with 
Veratru7n,  Cuprum,  etc. 

"Much  more  troublesome  are  those  (not  acute)  gradual  dis- 
eases which  arise  from  cholerine  (as  Father  Veith,  in  Vienna, 
calls  these  insidious  cases),  when  the  inhabitants  of  a  town, 
owing  to  the  widely  diffused  and  hence  more  diluted  miasmatic 
vapor  (the  focus  of  which  are  the  dead  bodies  of  those  who  die 
under  Allopathic  treatment),  get  only  a  few  symptoms  of  the 
cholera,  which  pass  off  in  the  case  of  robust  individuals,  but  in 
weak  persons  turn  gradually  into  vomiting,  but  principally  into 
painless  but  very  debilitating  diarrhoeas,  with  much  flatulence, 
and  which  (if  not  well  treated)  end  in  tetanic  convulsions, 
delirium,  and  death.  In  these  insidiously  occurring  affections 
the  employment  of  Camphor  is  inadmissible;  it  would  only 
hasten  the  patient's  death.  Phosphoric  acid,  as  Father  Veith 
found,  has  proved  specific  in  these  colloquative  diarrhoeas 
accompanied  with  rumbling  in  the  bowels,  which  exhaust  the 
vital  powers;  and  I,  too,  have  found  it  the  same  in  patients 
affected  in  this  way  in  Magdeburg. 


256  LIFE    OF   HAHNEMANN. 

"When  the  cholera  actually  attacks,  if  those  seized  by  it 
should  be  immediately  treated  by  their  friends  with  Camphor 
spirit,  there  would  then  be  no  fully  developed  cholera;  or  such 
cases  would  at  least  be  much  more  rare,  and  still  more  rare  fatal 
cases;  and  hence  also  no  spreading  of  the  miasmatic  vapor 
through  the  town,  consequently  also  no  cholerine,  nor  any  of 
that  lingering  kind  of  cholera,  which  I  consider  the  most  dan- 
gerous of  all. 

"As  regards  the  controversy  upon  the  contagiousness  of 
cholera,  I  beg  you  will  read  at  your  leisure  my  little  pamphlet, 
entitled:  'Appeal  to  Philanthropists  Respecting  the  Mode  in 
Which  Cholera  is  Infectious,  With  an  Appendix  by  Anthony 
Schrait,'  published  by  Charles  Berger;  and  thereafter  Schnitzer's 
'  Cholera  Contagiosa,'  Breslau."     *     *     * 

In  a  letter  to  Stapf,  September  23,  1831,  he  says:-'^  "  I  have 
already  sent  Schweikert  two  different  articles  on  the  treatment 
of  cholera;  "he  has  not  answered  me,  and  I  don't  know  if  they 
have  been  printed.  I  have  also  offered  him  the  situation,  and 
he  has  not  given  me  any  answer  upon  that  subject.  Has  the 
man  whom  I  considered  my  friend  anything  against  me  ? 

"  Miiny  thanks  to  your  Provincial  Counselor  for  having 
inserted  my  paper  in  the  local  newspaper,  and  still  more  thanks 
to  you  for  having  got  him  to  print  and  distribute  separate 
impressions  of  it.  Schmit  has  had  some  thousand  copies  of  it 
made  in  writing  (it  is  not  allowed  to  be  printed  in  Austria 
because  I  am  the  author)  and  widely  circulated.  The  indefat- 
igable man!  If  Attomyr  should  refuse  the  appointment  to 
England  I  will  offer  it  to  Schmit. 

"I  am  afraid  lest  our  letters  containing  medicine  should  be 
cut  through  and  fumigated,  and  thereby  spoiled.  We  might 
employ  thin  glass  tubes,  such  as  you  once  sent  me  with  Iodine, 
filled  with  the  larger  sort  of  globule,  so  that  they  lie  one  above 
the  other,  and  not  side  by  side. 

"The  glass  tubes  might  be  inserted  into  a  quill  corked  up  and 
placed  at  the  side  of  the  letter,  with  directions  to  take  the  top- 
most globule  first,  and  so  on.  By  this  plan  the  globules  would 
escape  the  fumigation.  **>!«* 

"Our  Rummel  has  also  issued  a  paper  of  directions  for  the 

*  Horn.  World,  Vol.  xxv.,  p.  419.  "  Anuals  Brit.  Horn.  Med.  Society," 
Vol.  ii.,  p.  356. 


ADVICE    FOR    TREATMENT    OF    CHOLERA.  257 

treatment  of  cholera,  in  which  he  recommends  Cuprum  and 
Caviphor.  It  is  only  Homoeopaths  that  can  act  thus.  The  reme- 
dies recommended  by  the  blind  Allopaths,  everyone  advising  a 
different  medicine,  are  almost  uncountable.  One  of  the  last  is 
a  stomach  plaster,  which  is  much  bepuffc;d  and  distributed  by 
the  Duke  of  Bernburg.  A  just  Providence  has  sent  cholera  to 
serve  as  a  sort  of  pillory  for  the  Allopaths,  in  which  the  un- 
certain and  pitiful  character  of  their  treatment  is  exposed;  then 
all  the  world  can  see  their  nakedness.         >l<  ^  <= 

"  What  do  you  say  to  this,  that  Schmit  assures  me  of.  namely, 
that  Metternich  has  taken  globules  of  Cupnoms  a  prophylactic, 
and  that  his  wife  is  partial  to  Homoeopathy  ?  And  here  is 
another  piece  of  important  intelligence  communicated  to  me  by 
another  friend  from  Prague.  Father  Veith,  of  Vienna  (a  practi- 
cal friend  of  Homoeopathy),  when  the  cholera  broke  out  in 
Vienna  cured  several  persons  who  were  suffering  from  cholera 
with  Camphor  according  to  my  directions  (he  was  previously 
doctor  of  medicine  and  director  of  the  Veterinary  College  in 
Vienna).  He  is  preaching  in  the  Cathedral  of  St.  Stephen,  and 
he  preached  a  sermon  before  the  Imperial  Court  in  this  church 
on  '  The  Cholera  in  the  lyight  of  Providence,'  in  which  he  says 
(the  sermon  is  now  printed):  '  It  is  a  remarkable  provision  of 
Providence  that  in  the  same  part  of  the  earth  which  was  the 
birthplace  of  cholera  its  most  powerful  remedy  {Camphor)  is  also 
to  be  found.'  Everyone,  says  my  correspondent,  was  delighted 
and  in  ecstasies  at  this. 

"  Dr.  Schmidt,  of  Konigsberg,  writes  that  though  he  had  had 
no  opportunities  of  seeing  and  treating  cases  of  cholera  he  had 
to  treat  a  boy  who  had  been  suffering  for  twenty- four  hours  from 
cholera  and  was  extremely  ill  with  vomiting  and  purging,  and 
yet  he  cured  him  with  Camphor,  given  according  to  my  method 
(spirits  of  Cainphor  dWnted  with  hot  water).  First  the  diarrhoea 
and  finally  the  vomiting  yielded.  The  people  there,  he  says, 
firmly  believe  (and  rightly  too,  alas!)  that  the  doctors  adminis- 
ter poisons.  Do  you  think  the  anecdote  about  Father  Veith 
suitable  for  the  Allg.  Anz.  d.  Deutscheii  ? 

"  I  enclose  a  cutting  hova.  the.  Joicrnal  des  De bats  which,  will 
do  for  the  Archiv  or  Schweikert's  periodical,  or  the  Allg.  Anz. 
d.  Deutschen.  When  you  are  done  with  it,  please  return  it  to 
me.     What  about  the  Edinburgh  Review  ? 


"  Yours  truly, 

"Sam.  Hahnemann." 


258  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

Dudgeon,  in  a  note  to  this  long  letter,  says:  "Doubtless 
Hahnemann  had  just  heard  of  the  article  on  his  system  that  was 
published  in  the  Edinburgh  Review  of  January,  1830." 


CHAPTER  L. 

DR.    QUIN'S    attack    OF    CHOLERA — LEGAL   HINDRANCES   TO 
HOMCEOPATHY. 

This  same  year  of  1831  Dr.  F.  F.  Quin,  who  had  first  intro- 
duced Homoeopath}'  into  England,  was  in  Moravia,  where  he 
had  gone  to  study  the  cholera.  He,  with  Dr.  Gerstel  and  two 
surgeons,  had  charge  of  all  the  cholera  cases  in  the  town  of 
Tischnowitz  and  the  neighboring  villages.  Quin  wrote  to 
Hahnemann  that  while  he  was  sitting  at  dinner  he  had  been 
attacked  with  cholera  without  warning,  and  that  he  had  been 
relieved  by  Camphor.  To  which  Hahnemann  replied  as  follows: 
' '  I  am  much  obliged  to  you  for  the  details  of  your  researches 
upon  the  nature  of  cholera  and  of  the  appropriate  Homoeopathic 
treatment.  You  are  right  in  the  opinion  you  express,  and  it  is 
one  borne  out  by  my  own  observations,  that  the  worst  form  of 
cholera  is  presented  by  cases  of  degenerated  cholerine.  I  have 
already  heard  from  Dr.  Gerstel  of  your  attack  of  the  epidemic, 
and  your  cure  by  Camphor.  I  congratulate  you  on  3'our  restora- 
tion, and  I  render  thanks  to  Almighty  God  for  having  preserved 
you  to  give  aid  to  the  unfortunate  victims  who  so  sadly  require 
your  assistance.  Your  success  in  the  treatment  of  cholera  is 
more  remarkable  from  your  ignorance  of  the  Moravian  language. 

"  May  the  gracious  God  conduct  you  safely  to  your  own  home, 
and  bless  your  efforts  to  instruct  your  countrymen  in  the  art  of 
healing  in  conformity  with  the  laws  of  nature. 

"Your  sincere  and  affectionate  friend, 

"Samuel  Hahnemann. 
*'  Coethen,  ^th  February,  iSji.'" 

So  great  was  the  success  in  Tischnowitz  that  the  Chief  Mag- 
istrate sent  to  Dr.  Quin  this  address:* 

"At  the   time  of  Dr.   Quin's  arrival  here  for  the  purpose  of 

*  "  History  and  Heroes  of  the  Art  of  Medicine,"  J.  Rutherford  Russell, 
Londou,  1861,  p.  426. 


DR.  QUIN  S  ATTACK  OF  CHOLERA.  259 

observing  the  epidemic  of  cholera  it  had  reached  its  greatest 
malignancy  in  the  villages  that  surround  the  town  and  castle; 
this  was  shown,  not  only  by  the  numbers  who  fell  ill,  but  by 
the  shortness  of  the  interval  between  the  commencement  of  the 
attack  and  its  fatal  termination — often  only  a  few  hours.  It 
happened  that  at  the  time  Dr.  Gerstel  and  surgeons  Hanush  and 
Linhart  were  all  three  confined  to  bed  by  illness. 

"Although  you  yourself,  upon  your  arrival,  were  attacked 
with  cholera,  you  nevertheless,  during  your  convalescence,  with 
the  most  humane  zeal,  undertook  the  treatment  of  those  ill  with 
cholera  during  the  period  when  Dr.  Gerstel  was  obliged  to  keep 
his  bed,  and  this  you  did  with  such  success  that  not  one  patient 
died.* 

"  The  authorities  feel  themselves  under  the  obligation  to  make 
their  respectful  acknowledgments  to  you  for  the  assistance  5'ou 
afforded,  with  such  generous  humanity,  to  the  inhabitants  of  this 
district. 

"Ernst  Dibble,  Chief  Magish-ate. 

*^  Tisch7iowitz,  November  JO,  183 1^ 

M.  Dieble  also  sent  a  table  with  the  above  letter  as  follows: 
Out  of  6.671  inhabitants  680  had  the  cholera  ;  of  these  331  were 
under  Allopathic  treatment  and  102  of  them  died  ;  278  w^ere 
treated  Homoeopathically  and  only  27  of  them  died  ;  of  71  treated 
with  Camphor  2Xoxi^  only  11  died. 

In  a  letter  to  Dr.  Gerstel,  dated  December  18,  1831,  Hahne- 
mann saysrf  "You  have  also  found  Phosphorus  useful  in  the 
stage  of  collapse  of  the  cholera  and  half  infection  (cholerine),  as 
was  first  pointed  out  by  Father  Veith  in  Vienna;  yet  he  soon 
found  reason  to  prefer  Phosphoric  acid  (even  by  frequently  smell- 
ing of  the  drug)  in  those  weakening  diarrhoeas,  with  much 
Tumbling  in  the  bowels,  that  occur  in  the  cholerine  (a  disease 
brought  on  by  semi- infections,  caused  by  the  diluted  miasm  in 
the  air,  in  the  greater  part  of  the  inhabitants  of  infected  towns), 
so  that  in  such  cases  I  would  give  the  Phosphoric  acid  the  prefer- 
ence over  Phosphorus.  Mr.  Fischer's  experience  and  testing  of 
Carbo  vegetab.  in  the  appropriate  severe  cases  is  very  valuable." 

The  Rev.  Father  Veith,  the  doctor-priest,  incumbent  of  the 
Cathedral  of  St.  Stephen  in  Vienna  and  chaplain  to  the  court, 

t  Three  died  the  day  after  the  report  was  signed. 
XBrit.  Jour.  Honi.,  Vol.  xv.,  p.  335. 


26o  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN, 

was  very  successful  while  acting  as  a  physician  in  this  cholera 
epidemic.  He  was  very  enthusiastic  in  the  results  of  the 
Homoeopathic  medication.  He  says:  "It  is  a  method  more 
speed}'-  than  any  I  have  previously  tried."  Dudgeon  says  that 
out  of  125  patients  treated  Horaoeopathically,  he  lost  but  three.* 

The  story  of  the  first  Homoeopathic  treatment  of  cholera,  in 
the  epidemic  of  1831  is  carefully  and  exhaustively  told  in 
"  Homoeopathic  Treatment  and  Prevention  of  Asiatic  Cholera," 
by  R.  E.  Dudgeon,  M.D.,  London,  1847. 

Rapou,  in  speaking  of  this  epoch  of  cholera,  says:t  This 
epidemic  of  cholera,  which  was  for  Homoeopathy  so  great  a 
triumph,  also  contributed  to  modify  certain  assertions  of 
Hahnemann  in  regard  to  the  administration  and  repetition  of 
remedies. 

At  this  time  Hahnemann  addressed  a  letter  dated  November 
7,  1 83 1,  through  the  columns  of  the  Allgemeine  Anzeiger,  to  the 
King  Frederick  William  of  Prussia,  begging  him  in  the  name  of 
humanity  to  test  his  system  in  this  fatal  disease. 

He  was  unsuccessful.  It  was  during  this  same  year  of  1831 
that  the  Prussian  Government  forbade  the  Homoeopaths 
dispensing  their  own  medicines  This  prohibition  lasted  for 
twelve  years;  then  an  examination  of  candidates  was  ordered, 
with  the  curious  proviso  that  any  one  who  had  previously  dis- 
pensed Homoeopathic  medicines  should  forever  lose  the  privilege 
of  being  examined  for  the  right  of  dispensing. 

The  right  to  dispense  was  the  great  drawback  to  the  practice 
of  the  new  Homoeopathy  in  all  Germany  at  this  time;  although 
a  lawyer,  one  C.  A.  Tittmann,  had  in  1829  published  a  book 
upon  the  police  laws  of  the  state  in  which  he  defended  the  right 
of  the  Homoeopath  to  dispense  his  own  medicines. | 

In  Russia,  into  which  Homoeopathy  had  been  introduced  by 
Dr.  Adam  in  1823.  a  trial  of  the  new  system  was  made,  in  a 
military  hospital,  in  1829.  In  1831,  although  the  Emperor 
Nicholas  was  said  to  be  favorable  to  Homoeopathy  and  even  had 
a  case  of  Homoeopathic  medicines,  the  opposition  was  very 
great.     In  the  cholera  trials  Hermann  wrote  that  he  had  to  give 


*Albrecht's  " Lebeu  und  Wirken."     Brit.  Jour.  Horn,.,  Vol.  i.,   p.   59; 
Vol.  vi.,  p.  414. 

t  "  Histoire  de  la  doctrine  Homceopathiquo, "  Vol.  ii.,  p.  307. 

t  "  Die  Homoopathie  in  staatspolizeirechtl     Hiusicht."    Meissen.     1S29. 


LEGAL    HINDRANCE    TO    HOMCEOPATHY,  26 1 

•up  the  treatment  of  cholera  patients  in  the  hospital,  as  only  the 
■dying  were  sent  to  him  by  the  Allopathic  authorities. 

About  this  time  laws  were  enacted  as  follows:  The  Central 
pharmacies  in  St.  Petersburg  and  Moscow  could  supply  other 
pharmacies  and  physicians  with  Homoeopathic  medicines,  but 
■only  in  preparations  not  lower  than  the  first  dilution  or  tritura- 
tion. Physicians  could  only  prescribe  by  written  prescription 
■except  in  urgent  cases  or  when  no  pharmacy  existed  in  the  place; 
in  the  latter  case  the  physician  was  compelled  to  write  on  a 
printed  blank,  with  a  special  stamp,  the  date,  name  of  remedy 
given,  its  dose,  the  name  and  social  position  of  the  patient,  the 
chief  symptoms  of  the  disease,  and  the  name  of  the  physician. 
When  the  doctor  gave  from  his  own  case  he  must  duplicate  the 
package;  one  being  for  the  patient's  use,  the  other  being  sealed 
and  endorsed  by  the  physician  with  the  name  of  the  patient, 
date,  etc.,  and  the  doctor's  signature.  In  case  the  patient  died 
this  package,  kept  with  the  seal  unbroken,  enabled  the  authori- 
ties to  determine  if  death  was  the  result  of  the  medicines. 

Dr.  J.  Rutherford  Russell  says  of  this  epoch,  that  the  ad- 
herents of  Hahnemann'ssystem,  in  order  to  avoid  the  prohibition 
against  compounding  medicines  acted  as  follows:  "When  they 
gave  advice  to  the  patients  who  sought  their  aid  they  made  a  free 
gift  of  the  medicine.  Even  this,  however,  would  not  do,  for  on 
the  13th  of  June,  1832,  an  order  to  the  following  effect  was 
published  at  Darmstadt:  'There  is  no  permission  granted  to  the 
Homoeopathic  physicians  to  dispense  their  own  medicines.  The 
law  can  make  no  difference  between  Homoeopathic  and  other 
physicians;  both  must  alike  prescribe  out  of  the  apothecaries' 
shop.'  Dr.  Weber,  physician  to  the  Prince  of  Solms-Lich,  was 
fined  thirty  dollars  for  administering  medicine  gratuitously  to 
his  patients."* 

The  matter  was  afterwards  brought  before  the  Baden  Land- 
tag and  it  was  granted  to  physicians  to  dispense  their  drugs 
gratuitously. 

When  Dr.  Quin  returned  to  England,  in  1832,  he  attracted  the 
notice  of  the  College  of  Physicians,  who  ordered  him  to  appear 
for  examination  and  licensure;  he  took  no  notice  of  the  order 
and  a  second  letter  was  sent  to  him.  To  this  he  answered  that 
he  meant  no  disrespect  by  not  answering  the  first  letter  and  ac- 

*" History  and  Heroes  of  Medicine,"  p.  440. 


262  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

knowledged  both  epistles,  saying  nothing  about  any  examina- 
tion. This  seemed  to  satisfy  that  body,  for  no  further  attempt 
was  made  to  examine  or  license  him. 

In  1829  Dr.  Trinks,  of  Dresden,  was  subjected  to  a  criminal  pro- 
cessonaccount  of  the  death  of  a  patient,  after  being  under  his  treat- 
ment for  four  days  with  the  typhoid  fever.  He  was  condemned  to 
pay  one-third  of  the  costs.  The  same  year  an  action  was  brought 
against  Trinks,  Wolf,  Lehmann  and  Helwig  for  not  bleeding  a 
patient  who  had  inflammation  of  the  lungs  and  who  died.  Trinks 
and  Wolf,  who  had  not  seen  the  patient,  were  acquitted;  L,eh- 
mann,  who  saw  the  case  once  and  reported  on  it  to  Trinks  with- 
out prescribing,  was  condemned  to  six  months'  imprisonment  at 
hard  labor,  and  Helwig.  who  saw  the  case  once  and  prescribed 
Aconife  and  Bryonia,  was  sentenced  to  four  weeks'  imprisonment. 
This  sentence  was  enforced  against  Helwig;  Lehmann  was  finally 
acquitted.* 

In  [831  Hornburg,  one  of  Hahnemann's  disciples,  was  arrested 
for  the  treatment  of  a  case  of  pleurisy,  which  did  not  die  under 
his  treatment,  but  under  that  of  Dr.  Clarus.  After  the  matter 
had  continued  for  two  years  Hornburg  was  sentenced  to  two 
months'   imprisonment.     He  died  soon  after  this  sentence. 


CHAPTER  LI. 

LETTERS   TO   SCHWEIKERT. 

The  following  letters  addressed  by  Hahnemann  to  Dr.  Benja- 
min Schweikertf  were  published  in  the  Allge^neine  homoopath- 
ische  Zeitung  for  July  2,  1891,  (Vol.  cxxii.,  p.  193). t  They 
were  preceded  by  the  following  letter: 

"  The  undersigned  is  in  possession  of  a  large  number  of  letters 
of  Hahnemann  to  his  father,  but  not  all  of  these  are  suitable  for 
publication.     He  will  present  them  to  the  Homoeopathic  Hospi- 

*Hotn.  League  Tract,  No.  6. 

t  George  Augustus  Benjamin  Schweikert  was  born  at  Zerbst,  September 
25,  1774.     He  died  at  Breslau,  December  15,  1S45. 

X  The  compiler  is  indebted  for  the  translation  of  the  above  letters  to  Prof, 
Louis  H.  Tafel,  Professor  of  Languages  at  Urbana  University,  Urbaua, 
Ohio.  They  are  literal  translations  from  the  original  German,  and  show 
quite  well  Hahnemann's  peculiar  habit  of  extending  his  sentences. 


LETTERS   TO  SCHWEIKERT.  265 

tal  at  Leipsic,  so  that  they  may  be  preserved  for  posterity  in  the 
room  which  has  been  specially  furnished  for  keeping  the  relics 
of  Hahnemann.  He  will  also  add  to  this  present  a  lithograph 
of  the  second  wife  of  Hahnemann,  Melanie,  nee  d'Hervilly- 
Gohier.  When  the  Hahnemann  monument  in  Leipbic  was 
unveiled,  original  letters  of  Hahnemann  were  sold  at  a  ducat 
(about  two  dollars). 

"Dr.  Johannes  Schweikert, 

'■'Medical  Director  in  Breslauy 

Although  of  different  dates,  the  letters  are  given  together. 
They  well  show  the  state  of  Hahnemann's  feelings  towards 
Schweikert  at  that  time. 

'  'Highly  Honored  Doctor: 

"  From  time  to  time  I  have  heard  of  the  progress  which  you 
have  made  with  so  much  success  in  Homoeopathy,  and  I  have 
rejoiced  over  your  honest  endeavor  to  receive,  wherever  you 
found  it,  the  truth,  without  prejudice,  even  at  the  sacrifice  of  a 
whole  world  full  of  old  long-practised  doctrines  of  the  old 
school.  I,  myself,  was  at  first  in  a  similar  position  with  you, 
having  been  instructed  in  their  universities  in  the  old  system  of 
medicine  and  its  many  statutes,  and  having  remained  for  many 
years  in  this  practice  I  know  well  how  much  self-denial  it 
requires  to  leave  the  old  train  of  ideas,  to  suppress  it,  and  to 
wipe  out,  so  to  say,  irom  the  whole  memory  all  the  apparatus  of 
ideas  required  by  study,  in  order  to  give  ingress,  free  ingress,  on 
the  soil  thus  laboriously  cleared  to  the  truth,  without  which  we 
cannot  bring  true  aid  to  suffering  men,  to  our  brethren. 

"  I  say,  I  can  very  well  put  myself  in  your  place;  with  what 
trouble  and  with  what  exertions  you  must  have  striven  so  as  to 
become  in  your  advanced  years  fully  a  Homoeopathic  physician. 

"  Besides  the  great  trouble  demanded,  it  requires  just  as  much 
honorableness,  love  of  mankind  and  self-denial,  all  of  which  I 
am  glad  to  find  united  in  you. 

"You  give  others  a  worthy  example  to  pattern  after,  and  I, 
who  never  pretend,  feel  it  my  duty  to  declare  this  to  you.  Your 
consciousness  of  doing  right  will  be  your  best  reward. 

"The  book  you  kindly  forwarded  to  me  as  the  beginning  of  a 
treatise  for  the  easier  discovery  of  the  symptoms  of  the  medi- 


264  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

cines  proved  heretofore,*  meets  with  my  full  approval,  and  I 
would  exhort  you  to  faithfully  persist  in  your  course,  without 
any  regard  to  the  labors  of  others,  who,  with  the  same  intent,  fol- 
low another  path,  and  not  to  be  deterred  from  it  by  this  apparent 
competition:  Duo  cum  faciunt  idem,  non  est  idem.  (When  two 
men  do  the  same,  it  is  not  the  same.) 

"  I  believe  your  work  will  retain  the  pre-eminence.  Reason 
demands  something  systematic;  you  present  the  subject  to  be 
treated  in  a  systematic  manner.  But  the  alphabetical  arrange- 
ment is  an  additional  desideratum  and  assists  in  finding  what  we 
want  as  no  other  system  can  do. 

"Remain  true  to  this  system  without  alteration,  if  I  may 
advise  you. 

"As  to  your  question,  I  have  not  stated  everywhere,  as  it 
ought  to  have  been,  that  in  preparing  tinctures  100  drops  of  the 
best  alcohol,  about  80  per  cent.,  should  be  taken  for  five  grains 
of  powder.'  But  I  would  ask  you  to  take  this  for  granted  in  all 
cases  of  this  kind,  since  twenty-fold  weight  would  produce  quite 
a  different  result,  which  cannot  be  my  desire. 

"  As  to  the  beer,  which  would  not  interfere  with  our  fine  doses 
of  Homceopathic  medicine,  I  prefer  the  light  beer  brewed 
from  wheat  malt  which  has  not  been  dried  or  parched; 
when  this  beer  is  prepared,  as  is  often  and  usually  done,  without 
the  addition  of  any  intoxicating  vegetable  product.  If  it  is  thus 
prepared  without  any  addition,  like  the  so-called  wheat  beer  in 
Thuringia  and  Arnstadt,  it  is,  indeed,  to  be  preferred  to  all 
others,  only  it  cannot  be  preserved  without  passing  over  into 
a  strong  vinous  fermentation  with  violent  foaming,  and  then 
soon  into  acetic  fermentation.  A  middle  course  is  pursued  by 
the  brewers  of  Gose  (light  beer)  in  Goslar,  in  the  Duchy  of  An- 
halt,  as  in  Sondersleben,  Glauzig  and  Wendorf.  They  also  take 
air-malt  of  wheat  for  brewing,  but  they  add  a  small  amount  of 
the  decoction  of  hops,  which  is  hardly,  or  not  at  all,  tasted  in 
drinking  it.  This  keeps  better,  and  our  nature  gradually,  so 
easily  and  so  fully  accustoms  itself  to  the  small  quantity  of  hops 
that  it  eventually  produces  no  difference  in  the  eflfect  of  Homoeo- 

*The  book  which  Hahnemann  here  mentions  and  which  is  spoken  of  in 
several  of  the  following  letters  as  the  "  Materialien,"  was  the  "Materialien 
zum  Gebrauche  fur  homoopath,  heileude  Aerzte.  Leipzig:  Brockhaus. 
1826-30."  It  was  issued  in  parts,  a  volume  being  published  yearly.  Four 
■volumes  were  issued. 


I^ETTERS   TO   SCHWEIKERT.  265 

pathic  doses  of  medicines.  The  light  beer  of  Kirchberg,  how- 
ever, and  other  similar  light  beers,  have  an  intoxicating,  injuri- 
ous ingredient  in  them.  Even  brown  beer,  which  in  itself  I  can 
not  recommend,  if  it  only  contains  hops  and  no  other  bitter  herb 
or  intoxicating  growth,  but  only  hops  in  limited  quantity,  may 
yet,  in  default  of  a  better,  be  permitted  if  the  patient  was  before 
used  to  it,  whereby  it  becomes  pretty  much  indiiFerent.  If  the 
patient  can  get  no  good  light  beer,  let  him  get  malt 
extract  made  of  wheat,  or  lacking  this,  malt  extract  made 
of  barley;  lei  him  dry  it  hard  and  cut  it  into  dice-shaped  pieces; 
let  these, be  crushed  into  a  coarse  powder,  pour  boiling  water 
over  it,  twenty-three  times  the  weight  of  the  malt,  cover  it  and 
let  it  draw  out.  This  strained  decoction  should  then  be  pre- 
served in  bottles  for  future  use.  This  gives  us  quite  a  harmless 
drink,  which  after  being  kept  up  for  a  few  days  becomes  some- 
what spirituous  and  is  lightly  nourishing. 

"If  I  should  be  able  to  get  to  see  and  to  speak  to  you  once 
before  my  end  it  would  give  me  joy. 

' '  Yours  devotedly, 

"S.  Hahnemann, 

"  Coethen,  November  24.,  1826." 


' '  Dear  Doctor: 

"  You  gave  me  much  joy  with  your  dedication.  I  quite  recog- 
nize its  value,  and  only  wish  for  the  opportunity  to  show  you  my 
gratitude  for  the  same. 

"  Also  in  this  part  of  your  'Materialien,'  for  the  transmission 
of  which  I  give  you  my  best  thanks,  I  again  realize  the  con- 
venience for  finding  everything  in  it,  which  is  afforded  by  the 
alphabetical  order  adopted  by  you.  Your  painstaking  care  is 
unmistakable.  If  it  is  possible  for  you  to  grant  me  very  soon 
the  honor  of  your  personal  acquaintance  you  will  give  great 
pleasure  to 

"  Your  most  devoted, 

"S.  Hahnemann. 

''  Coetke7i,  AuQ^ust  17,  182'/.'" 


' '  Dear  Colleagtie: 

"  With  many  thanks  I  acknowledge  to  you  the  receipt  of  the 
third  part  of    your  'Materialien,'    collected    by  you   with    so 


266  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

much  trouble  and  industry,  with  which  you  kindly  present  me. 
They  will  not  fail  of  their  intended  use  with  Homoeopathic 
physicians. 

"It  cannot  be  denied  that  the  alphabetical  arrangement 
affords  a  great  facility  in  finding  what  you  desire,  and  when 
there  are  a  great  number  of  subjects  it  is  an  indispensable  help. 

"  I  know  what  service  was  rendered  to  me  in  my  formerly  as 
yet  small  practice  by  the  second  part  of  my  "  Fragmenta  de 
viribus  medicamentorum  positivis."  Leipsic:  Barth,  1805, 
namely,  by  the  Latin  Index. 

"  If  you  have  this  Index  in  your  possession,  you  will  readily 
concede  this.  Such  a  small  vocabulary  does  not  indeed  seem  to 
have  any  learned  appearance,  nor  to  deserve  much  esteem,  but 
it  only  seems  so,  even  as  many  a  thing  in  the  world  seems  to  be 
of  quite  a  different  nature  than  it  is  in  fact  and  reality. 

"Let  such  a  Criticaster  nosotolus  only  try  to  produce  some- 
thing similar.  Incredible  efforts  as  well  as  judgment  are 
required  to  turn  the  phrases  so  that  the  leading  word  offers  itself 
to  the  alphabetical  arrangement,  and  when  this  word  occurs 
frequently  so  to  arrange  that  the  symptoms  containing  the  same 
may  also  through  the  secondary  ideas  follow  each  other,  divided 
into  subdivision  in  alphabetical  order.  It  is,  therefore,  a  work 
full  of  skill,  which,  on  account  of  the  facility  afforded  for  find- 
ing what  is  wanted,  deserves  the  greatest  esteem. 

"I  have  on  this  account  concluded  to  prepare  in  German, 
with  the  help  of  good  friends,  and  to  publish  as  soon  as  possible, 
such  a  general  register  like  the  above-mentioned  Latin  Index, 
to  contain  the  symptoms  of  the  antipsoric  medicines,  which  will 
now  very  soon  be  published.  I  know  that  this  great  multitude 
of  symptoms  will  only  become  useful  to  the  Homoeopathic  phj^- 
sician  when  he  can  quickly  find  every  idea  and  expression  that 
he  is  in  search  of. 

' '  I  prepared  such  a  vocabulary  for  my  own  practical  use 
twelve  years  ago  with  respect  to  the  medicines  then  already 
proved.  This  is  a  large  folio  volume  which  I  shall  show  you 
when  you  will  do  me  the  honor  of  paying  me  a  visit.  I  cannot 
tell  you  what  great  service  this  book  has  rendered  me;  it  has 
been  really  indispensable  for  me  to  save  valuable  time  which 
would  have  been  required  for  finding  out  the  facts  from  the  text. 

"Should  this  undertaking  please  you  on  examination,  and 


LETTERS   TO   SCHWEIKERT.  267 

sboiild  you  be  willing  to  become  a  co-laborer  in  this  scheme,  it 
would  be  very  agreeable  to  me.  I  should  take  care  to  provide  a 
fitting  stipend. 

"  In  the  meanwhile  I  beg  you  to  think  kindly  of  me. 
"  Your  devoted, 

"S.  Hahnemann. 
*' Coethen,  April  ^,  1828.'^ 


" '  My  Dear  Colleague  : 

"Only  lately  I  became  certain  that  H b's  handiwork  is 

only  a  systematic  presentation  after  the  fashion  of  his  former 
work,  for  Arnold  has  now  accepted  the  publication  of  my  alpha- 
betical repertory. 

"On  this  account  I  could  not  answer  your  friendly  letter 
before  this.  Our  work  requires  more  headwork  and  more 
thought,  but  then  it  is  also  just  what  we  should  wish  it  to  be, 
immensely  facilitating  the  finding  of  all  the  states  of  health  and 
disease  and  presenting  quickly  to  the  investigator  all  the  par- 
ticular ideas  worth  knowing,  which  often  lie  hidden  in  the 
symptoms. 

' '  Let  us  use  all  care  to  make  it  most  perfect.  I  therefore 
take  the  liberty  of  communicating  to  you  in  the  enclosed  leaflet 
my  idea  of  how  it  may  be  best  arranged,  so  that  you  may  then 
send  it  to  our  friend  Stapf,  in  order  that  he  may  hand  it  to  Dr. 
Rummel.  For  on  account  of  my  being  so  fully  occupied  it  is 
impossible  for  me  to  read  it  to  each  one  separately.  If  it  will 
not  give  you  too  much  trouble  I  would  ask  to  revise  the  part 
kindly  forwarded  to  me,  which  I  herewith  return  to  you,  accord- 
ing to  my  direction,  and  to  go  on  in  the  same  way  with  the 
remaining  symptoms  of  Phosphorus. 

"  I  have  pressed  out  the  juice  of  Rad.  cyclamen  Europ.  during 
the  winter,  and  also  the  herb  of  Helleborus  niger  when  it  com- 
menced to  bloom  in  January,  and  the  juice  of  both  of  them  will 
be  at  your  service  when  you  shall  do  me  the  honor  to  pay  me  a 
visit. 

"In  Warsaw,  Dr.  Bigel  has  received  from  Grand  Duke  Con- 
stantine  500  sons  of  soldiers  for  Homoeopathic  treatment,  and 
Dr.  Cosmo  de  Horatiis,  in  Naples,  has  received  from  his  king 
the  transfer  of  a  large  Homoeopathic  clinic.  Thus  things  are 
progressing  in  foreign  parts. 


268  LIFE   OF   HAHNEMANN. 

"And  even  to  the  Russian  army  operating  against  Turkey, 
Dr.  Hermann,  of  Petersburg,  has  been  sent  by  Grand  Duke 
Michael,  to  treat  the  hospital  patients  Homoeopathically.  And 
we  in  Germany,  how  far  are  we  behind  them!  We  have  no 
powerful  patron,  and  even  the  originator  of  the  art  must  be  glad 
to  practise  his  beneficent  art  in  a  little  foreign  place,  without 
being  publicly  authorized,  while  he  is  in  exile  and  denied  the 
privilege  of  administering  his  own  medicines,  and  the  next 
thing  is  that  his  bones,  now  growing  old,  will  be  buried  in  a 
foreign  land.     O  temporal     O  mores! 

"All  is  in  vain  that  the  good  Tittmann  and  Albrecht  have 
written.  Hahnemann  is  forbidden,  according  to  the  edict,  to 
prescribe  anything  in  Saxony  but  the  apothecary's  mixtures, 
and  his  native  land  remains  closed  to  him. 

"If  we  had  a  Homoeopathic  clinic  it  would  be  easy  to  study 
out  Laduca  virosa,  which  would  surely  prove  beneficent,  and 
also  many  other  treasures  of  nature.  God  grant  that  I  may  soon 
be  able  to  see  and  to  talk  with  you  here,  sound  and  in  good 
health.  Preserve  to  me  your  love.  This  is  written  at  the 
entrance  of  my  seventy-fifth  year,  April  lo,  1829. 
"  Your  most  devoted, 

"Sam.  Hahnemann." 


CHAPTER  LIT 

LETTERS  TO   SCHWEIKERT,  CONTINUED — HAHNEMANN'S  OPINION 
OF   SPINAL   BRACES. 

' '  My  Dear  Friend  and  Colleague: 

"Ever  since  I  have  been  able  to  think.  Saxony  has  advanced 
in  all  good  things  at  a  snail's  pace,  and  its  constitution  will  only 
be  able  with  great  trouble  to  make  a  commencement  in  improve- 
ment, for  all  the  limbs  of  this  State  are  fast  asleep.  Only  what 
is  old  and  fixed  by  custom  seems  best  to  it,  and  whatever  is  at 
present  customary,  however  bad  and  corroded  with  rust  it  may 
be. 

"Therefore  the  good  members  of  our  Legislature  have  not 
been  able  to  do  anything  effective  for  us,  as  I  always  have 
foretold.     Still  it  was  rather  strange  that  no  one  was  bright 


LETTERS   TO  SCHWEIKERT   CONTINUED.  269 

enough  to  exclude  Heinroth  from  the  consultation,  though  he 
already  betore  had  taken  part  against  our  art  as  in  his  sophisti- 
cal Anti-Organon.  It  was  very  wrong  of  the  President  that  he 
admitted  this  spiritual  adversary  to  the  consultation.  Your 
Grossman  has  shown  himself  to  advantage  in  this  business. 
Although  I  did  not  find  a  sample  of  the  highly  recommended 
steel  pens  in  your  letter,  I  confide  in  your  recommendation,  and 
would  ask  you  at  once  to  send  me  three  dozen  for  a  dollar,  if  I 
had  a  note  for  that  amount  at  hand. 

"  I  have  finished  my  whole  elaboration  of  this  second  edition 
of  the  "Chronic  Diseases,"  and  have  a  stack  of  documents  ly- 
ing before  me  which  our  good  friend  Isensee*  has  written  and 
collected  of  impressive  transactions  with  Arnold,  whom  we  have 
not  been  able  to  induce  to  send  me  a  few  proof  sheets  of  the  first 
part,  so  that  I  might  be  able  to  see  whether  he  has  really  com- 
menced the  work  or  not.     (The  wicked  behind  his  back — 

you  know  him — bewitches  him,  and  makes  him  grow  numb  as 
from  a  rattlesnake,  only  to  torment  me  to  death.)  f 

"I  kept  Mr.  Jahr  for  eight  months  to  assist  me  in  this  work, 
an  expense  of  more  than  five  hundred  thalers,  and  nevertheless, 
I  have  not  seen  one  proof  sheet !  No  demonstrable  beginning  of 
the  printing  of  the  work  !  Also  the  good  notary  Albrecht  we 
have  called  to  our  aid,  but  all  in  vain.  Neither  will  he  return 
the  first  part,  thus  preventing  me  from  applying  to  another  pub- 
lisher.    The  boy  behind  his  back  is  not  worth  the  gallows ! 

"  You  will  regret  with  me  that  I  cannot  put  the  money  derived 
from  the  reprint  of  the  first  two  parts  to  some  useful  purposes, 
we  have  to  thank  the  bad  boy  for  that ! 

' '  Enclosed  find  twenty-eight  gulden  from  Prague  and  a  short 
list  of  the  donors.  I  would  send  you  far  more  from  the  hands  of 
Boenninghausen,  if  he  had  only  received  your  part  of  the  'Jahr- 
bucher ; '  he  writes  me  that  in  that  case  there  would  be  no  lack 
of  contributions.  This  good  man  is  now  placed  in  a  favorable 
position  by  the  powers  above,  whereby  he  gains  more  leisure  for 
our  art. 

"Don't  listen  toothers!     Give  us  in  the  'Jahrbucher'  only 

*Isetisee  was  his  solicitor  and  lived  at  Coethen. 

t  Hahnemann  seems  to  refer  to  Trinks.  In  a  letter  to  Stapf  written  in 
1836  he  says  :  "The  inimical  spirit  of  Trinks  has  been  very  evident.  It 
must  have  been  by  his  devilish  interference  that  Arnold  let  my  manuscript 
lie  so  long  unprinted." 


270  LIFE   OF   HAHNEMANN. 

successful  cures.  Remain  strong  and  in  good  health,  and  give 
my  greetings  to  your  Anna,  also  to  Haubold,  Wahle,  I^ux  and 
whoever  else  is  worth  greeting,  from, 

' '  Your, 

"  Samuel  Hahnemann. 

"  Coethe?i,  N'ov.  2^,  i8jo.'" 

Hering  said  of  Arnold,  the  publisher  of  so  many  of  Hahne- 
mann's books:*  "Subsequently  (to  the  publication  of  the 
'  Fragmenta')  owing  to  the  increase  in  the  number  of  remedies 
the  difficulty  of  reference  increased  to  such  a  degree  as  to  lead 
Hahnemann  to  prepare  an  elaborate  index,  in  which  symptoms 
pertaining  to  each  organ,  locality,  sensation,  functional  change, 
condition  and  modality,  as  well  as  each  combination  of  symptoms 
could  be  found  and  compared. 

"Aided  by  this  bulky  '  Index',  Hahnemann  succeeded  in  cur- 
ing a  young. man  who  had  for  years  been  tortured  with  most  hor- 
rible pains,  the  result  of  old  school  medication.  This  young 
man  subsequently  became  the  head  of  the  publishing  house  of 
Arnold,  in  Dresden,  and  out  of  gratitude  he  offered  to  print  the 
'Organon'  in  1810;  this  was  followed  by  the  first  volume  of 
the  'Materia  Medica  Pura'  in  181 1.  Eleven  years  were  re- 
quired to  sell  the  edition  of  the  first  volume  of  the  '  Materia 
Medica. '  " 

The  next  letter  in  this  interesting  series  is  as  follows: 
' '  Dear  Friend  and  Colleague  : 

"After  having  become  better  acquainted  with  your  journal, f 
I  beg  you  not  to  let  it  fall  again  at  any  price  or  for  any  reason. 
I  foresee  that  you  will  forward  through  it  the  development  of 
our  art  infinitely  more  than  could  be  done  through  all  other 
Homoeopathic  writings,  mine  not  excepted.  Think  what  a  good 
work  you  are  doing,  what  great  service  you  are  thereby  render- 
ing to  humanity.  Your  inventive  genius  will  yet  discover  ways 
and  means  to  continue  this  journal  in  au  instructive  manner,  and 
as  it  daily  increases  its  list  of  subscribers,  the  publisher  must 
come  and  increase  your  stipend  (still  more  in  the  future),  so  that 

*  Trans.  World's  Horn.  Convention.     1876.     Vol.  i,  p.  1094. 

fThe  journal  to  which  Hahnemann  alludes  was  the  Zeitung  der  naiicr- 
gesetzlichen  Heilkunst  fur  Freunde  tmd  Feind  der  Homoopathie.  It  was 
issued  weekly  as  a  small  quarto,  and  was  a  popular  and  family  sheet.  It 
was  commenced  in  July,  1830. 


LETTERS   TO   SCHWEIKERT   CONTINUED.  27 1 

you  will  finally  have  a  satisfactory  income.  Think  of  me.  It 
would  also  be  advisable  to  request  one  and  another  Homoeopath 
by  letter  to  furnish  news  from  his  part  of  the  country. 

"  Did  Stapf,  as  I  requested,  give  you  the  news  for  publication 
that  Dr.  Aegidi,  of  Ilsit,  has  accepted  the  call  as  Homoeopathic 
physician  in  ordinary  to  her  royal  highness,  Princess  Fredericka 
of  Prussia,  in  Dusseldorf,  with  a  yearly  salary  of  600  thalers, 
traveling  expenses,  and  the  written  official  permission  to  pre- 
scribe his  own  medicines,  and  that  he  has  entered  on  his  office  ? 

"A  reader  of  your  journal  reports  not  having  found  in  it  this 
good  news.  Herewith  I  communicate  to  you,  in  addition,  the 
following  for  publication: 

"St.  Petersburg. — A  very  zealous  Homoeopath,  Dr.  Zim- 
merman, formerly  having  a  position  in  the  hospital  at  Oranien- 
baum,  who  is  now  at  Zarskoe-Selo  (three  miles  from  Petersburg) 
physician  to  a  newly  established  Institute  for  the  care  of  soldiers' 
boys,  400  in  number,  accepted  this  position  only  on  condition 
that  he  be  allowed  to  treat  the  patients  Homoeopathically. 

"They  have  there  even  children  with  nurses,  and  also  boys 
up  to  ten  years  of  age.  The  Institute  is  under  the  charge  of  the 
Empress,  who  is  interested  in  it.  This  Homoeopathic  treatment 
was  not  only  granted  by  the  authorities,  but  a  sum  of  money  for 
procuring  a  Homoeopathic  pharmacy  was  also  granted  him.  Tu 
ne  cede  malis  sed  contra  audacior  ito!  (Do  not  give  way  to  the 
wicked,  but  boldly  meet  them!) 

"All  will  come  better  if  we  only  persevere.  That  is  what  I 
did,  and  God  has  at  last  blessed  me,  after  all  my  trouble  and 
affliction. 

"  I  anticipate  with  pleasure  your  visit  after  the  celebration  of 
the  loth  of  August.      "Your  devoted, 

"Sam.  Hahnemann. 
"  Coethen,  July  2,  183 1. 

"P.  S. — For  the  twenty-one  year  old  patient  so  dreadfully 
injured  by  Iodine,  whom  I  consider  almost  a  desperate  case  and 
poisoned,  I  advise  to  use  yet  Phosphorus  and  Natrimi  muriaficum 
alternately." 


' '  Dear  Friend  and  Colleague  : 

"  I  rejoice  in  your  operations.     What  Dr.  I^ehmann  writes  I 
confirm;  as  to  the  rest,  more  orally,  as  I  wish.     Or wrote  to 


272  LIFE   OF    HAHNEMANN. 

me  himself,  how  rudely  he  treated  you,  and  I  gave  him  a  good 
lecture. 

"  He  is  as  yet  too  rough;  necessity  will  have  to  polish  him. 
You  are  right  in  leaving  him  severely  alone.     For  Lehmstaedt 
I   advise  to  alternate  with  Platina,  Hepar  and   Toxicodendron, 
leaving  each  medicine  to  act  fourteen  days. 
"  Hoping  to  see  you  soon.     Your 

"Sam.  Hahnemann. 
■■"  Coethen,  Mafch  77,  i8j^y 


It  is  of  interest  to  know  Hahnemann's  opinion  of  braces  and 
machines  in  the  treatment  of  spinal  diseases,  and  it  may  be 
learned  by  the  following  letter,  written  to  Dr.  Loewe  of  Prague:* 

"As  regards  the  girl  with  the  crooked  spine  I  would  never 
recommend  machines,  which,  as  far  as  I  know  of  them,  are  very 
far  from  attaining  their  object,  but,  on  the  contrary,  do  much 
more  harm  than  good;  and  as,  moreover,  the  disease  that  lies  at 
the  root  of  the  softening  of  the  bones,  causing  the  curvature,  is 
purely  a  psoric  one,  you  will  find  it  best  to  give  first,  tinct. 
Sulph.,  one,  two  or  three  globules;  then  Calcarea ;  then  Phos. 
acid;  then  Baryta  and  Phosphorus,  and  Silicea. 

"  At  the  same  time  the  patient  should  walk  out  in  the  open 
air,  and  should  use  gymnastic  exercises  of  the  cross  bar  daily, 
several  times,  by  hanging  from  it  with  both  hands  and  swinging 
to  and  fro  several  minutes  at  a  time.  You  will,  of  course,  also 
order  that  coffee,  tea,  and  vegetable  acids  should  be  avoided. 
Stroking  the  crooked  parts  with  mesmerizing  hands  has  often 
been  of  use  alone,  and  we  should  at  least  use  it  as  an  auxiliary 
means. 

"Farewell,  and  remember  yours. 

"S.  Hahnemann. 

"  Coethen,  2jd  Sept.,  18 ji.''' 

Hahneman  also  in  a  letter  to  Stapf,  dated  June  22,  1829,  says 
in  regard  to  spinal  diseases:  f"  I  have  improved  and  even  cured 
several  cases  of  curvature  of  the  spine  by  antipsoric  remedies 
{e.g.  Calc.)  without  the  aid  of  a  machine.  A  respectable  un- 
married lady,  of  about  forty  years  of  age,  who  was  very  de- 
formed, while  taking  antipsoric  medicines  for  periodical  head- 

*Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  xv.,  p.  336. 
^Hom.  World,  Vol.  xxv.,  p.  18. 


DEATH    OF   DUKE    FERDINAND.  273 

ache  and  some  miliary  eruption  became  two  inches  taller, so  that 
I  scarcely  recognized  her  when  I  saw  her  a  year  afterwards." 

Again  to  Stapf  he  says:*  "  I  am  delighted  with  the  eflfect  of 
Sulphur  on  your  little  Mary,  which  is  as  striking  as  it  is  beneficial. 
Without  using  any  rr  achine  I  have  cured  a  number  of  deformities 
of  the  bones  with  antipsorics.  The  healing  power  of  t>od  with 
which  He  has  endowed  the  antip<oric  remedies  given  to  us  has 
no  need  of  such  painful  appliances.  Simple  mechanical  means 
may  certainly  prove  of  use.  Thus  I  saw  a  very  deformed  lady, 
forty-eight  3'ears  of  age,  who,  after  a  nearly  completed  anti- 
psoric  treatment  for  persistent  headache,  felt  an  urgent  desire  to 
stretch  herself  frequently.  In  order  to  do  this  she  often  hung 
and  swung  herselt  by  an  elevated  cross  beam;  in  a  short  time 
she  became  three  inches  taller  and  straighter,  so  that  I  was 
amazed  and  hardly  recognized  her  when  I  saw  her  a  year  after- 
wards. That  must  obviate  the  necessity  of  employing  the  ma- 
chines of  Heine  and  others."     This  letter  was  written  in   1826. 


CHAPTER  LIH. 

DEATH    OF   DUKE    FERDINAND — HAHNEMANN'S  I.ETTER  TO  DUKE 
HENRY — LETTER   TO   AEGIDI. 

Hahnemann's  good  protector,  the  Duke  Ferdinand,  died  in 
1 83 1.  From  his  first  acquaintance  with  his  friend  and  doctor  he 
had  treated  him  with  uninterrupted  kindness.  After  his  death 
the  medical  authorities  of  the  State,  the  Allopathic  physicians, 
got  the  ear  of  Duke  Henry,  the  brother  and  successor  of  Ferdi- 
nand, and  sought  to  prejudice  him  against  Hahnemann.! 

Hahnemann  and  Dr.  Mossdorf  did  not  agree  well,  and  Moss- 
dorf  finally  left  Coethen,  leaving  Hahnemann  without  any 
assistant. 

Hahnemann  addressed  the  following  letter  to  the  Duke  Henry 
on  August  6,  1832: 
'^'^  Most  Serene  and  Gracious  Lord : 

"For  some  years  I  availed  myself  of  the  permission  most 
graciously  accorded  by  your  lamented  brother,  my  never  to  be 

*Hc»;«.   World,  Vol.  xxiv.,  p.  362. 

t  Brit.  Tour.  Horn.,  Vol.  xxxvi.,  p.  262. 


274  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

slightly  honoi'ed  patron,  to  associate  with  myself  a  Homoeo- 
pathic medical  assistant  independent  of  the  Allopathic  medical 
authorities,  whom  I  would  still  have  retained  had  his  moral 
conduct  been  only  tolerable. 

"Now  I  am  compelled,  by  my  great  age  and  the  afflux  of 
patients  from  far  and  near  that  overtaxes  my  powers,  to  select 
another  successor  arid  assistant,  and  my  choice  has  fallen  on  Dr. 
lychmann,  of  Iveitzkau,  a  man  who  has  for  several  years  enjoyed 
a  good  repute  as  an  Allopathic  physician,  and  a  person  of  quiet 
and  steady  character,  who  has  now  embraced  Homoeopathy 
from  conviction,  and  displays  such  an  active  zeal  for  his  health- 
promoting  art,  that  he  gives  hopes  of  being  able,  with  my  aid, 
to  do  some  excellent  service  therein. 

"  I  have  considered  it  my  duty  to  announce  my  choice  to  your 
Serene  Highness  as  your  most  obedient  servant, 

"Samuel  Hahnemann." 

The  jealous  medical  authorities  of  the  State  obtained  the  ear 
of  the  Duke  and  endeavored  to  persuade  him  not  to  grant  to  Dr. 
lychmann  the  same  privilege  that  Dr.  Mossdorf  had  enjoyed. 
He  was  allowed  to  go  to  Coethen  as  the  assistant  of  Hahnemann, 
but  could  not  take  patients  independently  of  him,  and  was  sub- 
ject to  the  control  of  the  Allopathic  authorities. 

Therefore  Hahnemann,  on  the  3d  of  December,  1832,  addressed 
the  following  remonstrance  to  Duke  Henry  : 
"  Most  Serene  Diike,  Most  Gracious  Lord  : 

"  I  beg  to  offer  my  most  humble  thanks  to  your  Serene  High- 
ness for  your  gracious  permission  to  choose  Dr.  Lehmann  as  my 
medical  assistant.  Dr.  Lehmann,  who  was  already  versed  in 
the  Homoeopathic  doctrine,  has  by  zeal,  under  my  guidance,  in 
a  short  time  attained  such  proficiency  in  it  that  I  can  already 
reckon  him  one  of  my  good  disciples. 

"He  has  already  procured  nie  some  relief  in  my  excessive 
labors. 

"But  the  afflux  of  patients  given  over  as  incurable  by  your 
Allopathic  physicians  to  the  Homoeopathic  system,  from  far  and 
near,  increases  daily,  so  convinced  are  the  public  that  real  and 
permanent  cure  is  only  to  be  obtained  from  the  new  system  of 
medicine. 

"  I  therefore  make  bold  once  more  to  beg  your  Serene  High- 
ness,   humbly,   but   confid-rntially,    that  you  would    generously 


LETTER   TO    DUKE    HENRY.  275 

please  to  accord  to  Dr.  L<ehmann,  in  order  that  he  may  be  able 
to  give  me  his  aid  in  full  efficiency,  the  same  independent  posi- 
tion towards  me  as  wis  enjoyed  by  Dr.  Mossdorf,  my  former 
medical  assistant,  by  the  grace  of  the  unforgetable  Duke  Ferdi- 
nand, your  lamented  brother. 

"  Only  thus  can  I  have  in  Dr.  lyehmann  a  true  and  lasting 
aid  and  support,  and  on  my  decease  your  Serene  Highness  will 
have  in  your  capital  a  true  Homoeopathic  physician  trained 
under  my  guidance,  whereas  otherwise  he  will  soon  return  to 
his  own  country  to  practice  as  a  Homoeopathic  physician  in 
Magdeburg,  and  I  in  my  advanced  age  will  be  again  left  alone, 
and  will  be  compelled  to  turn  away  more  than  half  of  the 
patients  who  flock  to  be  cured. 

"  Your  Serene  Highness's  most  obedient, 

"  Samuee  Hahnemann." 

Duke  Henry,  without  consulting  the  medical  authorities, 
granted  this  favor.  He  issued  a  decree  dated  January  14,  1833, 
as  follows: 

"We  grant  permission  to  Dr.  Lehmann  to  settle  here  as  a 
practicing  Homoeopathic  physician  for  the  purpose  of  assisting 
Hofrath  Dr.  Hahnemann,  and  as  such  to  prepare  the  medicines 
he  requires  for  his  treatment.  In  other  respects,  Dr.  L,ehmann 
is  subject  to  all  State  and  police  laws  and  regulations. 

"  Henry." 

Hahnemann  soon  after  published  in  Schweikert's  journal  the 
following  letter  upon  the  subject  of  self-dispensing:* 

' '  The  Dispensing  oe  Homceopathic  Remedies  Exempt  from 
THE  Old  Apothecaries'  Privilege. 

' '  In  contradistinction  to  what  was  published  in  the  Prussian 
States  Gazette  on  April  17  of  this  year  (1833),  whereby  out  of 
courtesy  to  an  old-time  apothecaries'  privilege,  the  dispensing  of 
their  own  medicines  is  again  refused  to  Homoeopathic  physicians, 
it  is  a  pleasure  to  make  known  to  our  age  the  disposition  of  a 
noble  hearted  sovereign,  Duke  Henry  of  AnhaltCoethen,  who, 
upon  self-acquired  conviction  of  the  infinite  superiority  of 
Homoeopathic  remedies  to  the  old  physic,  of  his  own  accord  and 
in  unison  with  the  previous  good  sense  of  his  deceased  brother 
Ferdinand,  granted  full  permission  to  Dr.  Hahnemann  to  pre- 
pare his  own  medicines  himself,  and  thus  to  lend  a  helping  hand 

"^  Zeit.  der  horn.  Heilkunst,  Vol.   vii.,  p.  188. 


276  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

to  his  patients,  in  a  rescript  executed  in  his  own  handwriting, 
on  the  14th  of  this  January  (1833),  ^^'^  has  now  conferred  upon 
Dr.  Lehmann  also  the  same  right  to  heal  unhindered  his  patients 
with  Homoeopathic  remedies  prepared  by  himself — a  privilege 
which  has  been  attended  with  blessed  results  to  sick  people. 

"  Samueiv  Hahnemann. 
*'  Coeihe7i,  Ap4.il  26,  iSjj.'" 

After  Hahnemann  had  left  Coethen  in  1835  the  apothecaries  ot 
the  Principality  presented  a  petition  signed  by  all  of  them  asking 
that  not  only  Hofrath  Lehmann  should  be  deprived  of  the  right 
to  prepare  and  dispense  his  own  medicines,  but  that  the  right 
should  be  denied  to  all  other  Homoeopathic  physicians  who 
might  settle  in  Coethen. 

The  Duke  rejected  this  and  confirmed  Dr.  Lehmann  in  his 
privilege.  Lehmann  remained  for  many  years  in  Coethen,  where 
he  died  on  January  9,  1865,  aged  77  years. 

Hahnemann  was  in  the  habit  of  sending  to  him  from  Paris  for 
his  medicines,  and  he  supplied  him  with  them  until  the  time  of 
his  death.* 

The  following  letter  to  Dr.  Aegidi  is  of  interest  as  showing 
Hahnemann's  opinion  at  this  period  of  his  life  in  regard  to  the 
repetition  of  the  Homoeopathic  dose,  especially  of  the  antipsoric 
remedies  :t 

"First  about  your  good  Princess.  In  October  1829  she  sent 
me  the  heavy  package  of  your  prescriptions  up  to  that  time,  from 
which  I  have  made  the  enclosed  extract.  From  this  I  see  that 
she  had  already  abused  baths  with  Hepar  Sulphuris  and  precipi- 
tated Sulphur.  From  a  great  fear,  warned  by  experience,  I 
avoided  entirely  giving  her  the  like.  Nevertheless,  my  later 
observations  have  taught  me  that  even  after  being  abused  it 
may  after  two  or  three  years  be  used  with  great  profit  and  with- 
out harm  in  our  preparations  of  the  same. 

"Now  since  Sulphur  2J~,  prepared  by  us  and  in  our  doses  re- 
mains the  most  excellent  of  all  the  antipsoric  remedies  which 
therefore  cannot  help  advancing  her  in  her  cure,  I  herewith  send 
you  nine  little  powders;  in  these,  in  No.  i,  4,  6  and  9,  is  one 
little  pellet  of  Tct.  Sulplmr,  x. 

"Wolf,  in  Dresden,  has  in  the  y^rMzV  called  attention  to  the 


*  Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  viii.,  p.  555. 
■\Allg.  horn.  Zeitung,  Vol.  Ixviii.,  p.  16. 


LETTER   TO   AEGIDI.  277 

fact,  but  I  perceived  it  already  before  that  in  very  old  psoric  ail- 
ments Sulphur  in  one  dose  is  not  sufficient,  and  I  therefore  effect 
far  more  in  the  worst  cases  by  giving  in  the  commencement 
several  doses,  especially  with  patients  who  have  already  been 
much  spoiled  by  many  wrong  remedies,  if  only  thej'-  have  not 
lately  received  Sulphur;  we,  as  it  were,  penetrate  by  means  of 
this  remedy  through  the  diatheses  of  the  diseases  caused  by 
medicines,  so  as  to  surely  aflfect  the  vital  force  with  the  necessary 
healing  Siclphur  disease. 

"I  was  led  to  this  through  the  perverse  Allopathic  practice, 
by  means  of  which  these  gentlemen  through  daily  (often  through 
several  daily)  doses  of  one  and  the  same  medicine,  within 
a  few  weeks  produce  with  certainty  a  long-enduring,  medicine 
sickness  (though  they  do  this  to  the  destruction  of  their  patients- 
not  only  when  the  medicine  was  considerable  and  unhomoeo- 
pathic;  since  through  these  means  used  in  so  long  a  repetition 
and  largeness  of  dose,  the  vital  force  is  only  suppressed  and  ren- 
dered incapable  for  any  beneficial  healing  action).  Sed  abusus^ 
non  tollit  usum. 

"  I  drew  from  this  the  instruction  that  likely  several  repeti- 
tions of  the  dose  of  a  Homoeopathic  remedy  within  a  short 
period  may  be  required  to  effect  thereby  gradually  such  a  degree 
of  medical  transformation  of  the  vital  force  as  may  be  necessary 
for  the  production  of  a  reaction  of  the  vital  force  sufficient  tO' 
cure  a  severe  chronic  disease.  Experience  also  taught  me  that 
this  repeated  giving  of  the  smallest  dose  is  in  practice  immeasur- 
ably preferable  to  any  merely  single  prescription  of  this  dose. 
Three  or  four  days  in  succession  {e.g.,  i'  2'  3'  Tct.  Sulph.,  x) 
such  a  smallest  dose  has  surely  already  done  me  good  service 
with  persons  not  too  excitable,  but  with  very  sensitive  persons 
that  order  is  more  effective  in  which  I  herewith  send  you  the 
Sulphur  for  the  Princess,  who  will  therefore  take  on  each  one  of 
the  nine  mornings  one  moistened  powder,  moistened  without 
drinking  anything  within  one-half  hour  afterwards.  Still  it  will 
be  best  if  this  is  not  done  shortly  before  an  expected  monthly. 
I  hope  very  much  from  tliis  medicine. 

"I  would  beg  you  to  communicate  something  of  what  I  have 
said  to  our  excellent  Homoeopathic  friend,  von  Boenninghausen. 

"You  have  given  me  as  much  pleasure  by  the  rest  of  your 
news  concerning  the  progress  of  our  art,  both  in  your  practice 


278  LIFE   OF   HAHNEMANN. 

and  in  the  better  opinion  of  the  public  with  respect  to  it,  as  if 
you  had  made  me  a  great  present.  For  the  welfare  of  suffering 
humanity  is  very  dear  to  my  heart.  Of  the  enclosed  two  steel 
engravings,  one  is  intended  for  you  and  the  second  for  the  good 
Princess. 

' '  Schmit's  well-written  pamphlet  is  also  intended  for  you.  The 
enclosed  little  sealed  packet  I  would  request  you  to  be  so  kind 
as  to  transmit  to  our  dear  R.  R.  v.  B.  The  letter  of  the  worthy 
V.  Lotzbeck  has  given  me  pleasure.  God  grant  you  great  good 
fortune  is  the  wish  of 

"  Your  friend, 


"  S.  Hahnemann. 


Coetheri,  Jan.  6 th ,  183 ^ . " 


CHAPTER  LIV. 

LIFE    AT    COETHEN — DR.     PESCHIER's    VISIT — HOMCEOPATHY    IN 
AMERICA — LETTER  TO  TRINIUS — WANTED,  A  HOMCEOPATHIST. 

'Rapou  says:  "From  1829  to  1832  were  three  very  happy  years 
in  the  life  of  Hahnemann;  honored  by  the  friendship  and  pro- 
tection of  a  generous  Prince,  glorying  in  a  reputation  more  than 
European,  chief  of  a  school  whose  pupils  were  zealous  and  re- 
spected.    His  practice  was  very  large. 

"  Dr.  Mossdorf  had  at  first  been  his  assistant,  but  in  1832  he 
engaged  Counsellor  Lehmann  to  assist  him.  Just  when  Dr.  Moss- 
dorf left  Coethen  is  uncertain,  but  it  is  probable  that  he  had,  in 
1832,  been  gone  for  several  years  when  Hahnemann  asked  to  be 
allowed  to  engage  Dr.  I^ehmann  as  assistant. 

"Many  of  his  believers  from  Europe  and  other  countries 
visited  Coethen,  the  Mecca  of  Homoeopathy." 

Hull  says:  *"A  trait  of  character  especially  manifested  at 
this  period  of  Hahnemann's  career  commands  our  deepest  respect, 
his  charitable  treatment  of  the  poor,  medically  and  pecuniarily. 
The  poor  of  the  district  of  Coethen  were  especially  the  bene- 
ficiaries of  his  medical  skill  and  attainments,  although  the  in- 
-cessant  applications  of  the  influential  and  wealthy  were  more 
than  sufficient  to  engross  his  entire  time.  The  unwearied  at- 
*H<&m.  Examiner,  Vol.  ii.,  p.  8. 


HOMCEOPATHY    IN    1 832.  279 

tentions  bestowed  by  him  upon  an  infant,  in  particular,  elicited 
the  ardent  eulogium  of  the  distinguished  Peschier,  who  took 
advantage  of  the  opportunity  to  record  the  habits  of  practice 
adopted  by  Hahnemann." 

There  is  an  idea  that  Hahnemann  borrowed  his  doctrines  from 
Paracelsus.  He  himself  did  7iot  think  he  did,  as  is  seen  from  the 
folio  wing  extract  from  a  letter  to  Stapf,  dated  May  5,  1831:  *"What 
do  you  say  about  Professor  Schultz's  work  on  the  homeobiotic 
medicine  of  Theophrastus  Paracelsus,  which  has  been  published 
in  Berlint  (and  of  which  there  is  full  notice  in  the  Vossische 
Zeihing,  No.  92)  ?  According  to  him  I  borrowed  my  system  from 
this  man's  writings  (incomprehensible  gibberish),  but  did  not 
rightly  understand  the  matter  and  made  a  bungle  of  it.  Th. 
Paracelsus,  he  tells  us,  understood  it  much  better. 

"No  one  hitherto  has  attempted  to  attack  Homoeopathy  from 
this  side — that  alone  was  wanting." 

From  a  literary  point  of  view  the  year  of  1832  was  exceed- 
ingly important  to  Homoeopathy. 

To  this  year  belongs  the  establishment  of  another  Homoeo- 
pathic paper,  the  Allgemeiiie  homoopathische  Zeihing,  a  weekly 
journal  of  Homoeopathy.  It  began  on  July  i,  1832.  The  editors 
were  Drs.  G.  W.  Gross,  of  Juterbogh;  F.  Hartmann,  of  Leipsic, 
and  F.  Rummel,  of  Magdeburg.  The  journal  is  still  published, 
and  has  always  been  one  of  the  most  important  in  the  his- 
tory of  Homoeopathy. 

In  1832  Arnold  published  a  new  edition  of  von  Brunnow's 
French  translation  of  the  "Organon."  Arnold  in  a  note  says 
that  this  edition,  made  from  the  fourth  German  edition,  was  all 
ready  to  be  published  in  1830,  but  that  political  troubles  and  the 
slight  gain  of  Homoeopathy  in  France  prevented  its  issue. 
Brunnow's  preface  is  dated  Dresden,  April  30,  1830. 

In  this  same  year  of  1832  another  French  translation  was 
made  by  Dr.  A.  J.  L-  Jo.urdan,  and  issued  by  Bailliere  in  Paris. 

Arnold  mentions  this  edition  in  his  note,  and  says  he  is  in- 
nocent of  its  merits,  but  refers  the  reader  to  a  letter  from  Hahne- 
mann, printed  on  the  same  page: 

^Hotn.  World,  Vol.  xxv.,  p.  256. 

fThe  full  title  is:  "The  Homeobiotic  Medicine  of  Theophrastus  Para- 
celsus contrasted  with  the  Medicine  of  the  Ancients,  and  the  Source  of 
Homoeopathy.     C.  H.  Schultz,  Berlin,  1831." 


28o  LIFE   OF    HAHNEMANN. 

"I  declare  that  my  friend  M.  de  Brunnow  has  perfectly  ren- 
dered the  text  of  my  'Organon,'  and  that  this  French  translation 
is  the  only  one  which  I  regard  as  authentic. 

"  Samuel  Hahnemann. 

"  Coetheii,  loth  March,  18^2 ^ 

This  book  also  contains  a  sketch  of  Hahnemann's  life  and  a 
general  exposition  of  the  principles  of  HomcEopathy  by  von 
Brunnow. 

Dr.  Jourdan  published  a  French  edition  of  the  "  Chronic  Dis- 
eases," in  1832,  in  Paris.  The  same  year  Dr.  Bigel  issued  an 
edition  at  Lyons,  also  in  French. 

Boenninghausen,  at  Munster,  published  his  celebrated  reper- 
tory in  1832. 

In  1832-37  a  translation  of  the  "  Chronic  Diseases  "  was  made 
into  Italian  by  Dr.  Belluomini,  and  published  in  four  volumes,  in 
Teramo.  Italy. 

Dr.  C.  G.  Peschier,  of  Geneva,  of  whom  Hull  writes,  became 
interested  in  Homoeopathy  in  1832.  *  He  attended  the  meeting 
of  the  Central  Union  at  Leipsic,  in  August  of  that  year,  and 
afterwards  visited  Hahnemann  at  Coethen.  An  account  of  the 
meeting  of  the  society  and  also  of  the  visit  to  Hahnemann  was 
furnished  by  him  in  two  letters  published  in  the  Bibliotheque 
Homceopathiq7ie,  Vol.  i.  1833.  This  was  the  first  Homoeopathic 
periodical  published  in  the  French  language,  and  Dr.  Peschier 
afterwards  became  its  editor. 

Dr.  Peschier  was  at  Coethen  about  the  middle  of  August,  1832, 
and  remained  there  for  some  time,  learning  the  new  medical  doc- 
trine at  the  home  and  from  the  lips  of  its  discoverer. 

The  following  is  a  free  translation  of  the  letter  describing  this 
visit,  t  "After  the  meeting  at  Leipsic,  many  of  the  visiting  phy- 
sicians went  to  Coethen  to  pay  their  respects  to  Hahnemann. 

"The  hour  on  which  I  could  meet  the  venerable  Hahne- 
mann arrived,  and  already  one  of  the  many  patients  of  the  great 
man  coming  from  his  office  informed  me  that  Hahnemann 
knew  of  my  arrival  and  was  very  anxious  to  see  me.  Upon 
these  flattering  words  I  at  once  prepared  to  wait  upon  him,  when 
a  message  came  saying  that  he  would  be  detained  for  an  hour  by 

*Biography  iu  Btit.  Jour.  Horn.,  VoL  xii.,  p.  166. 
■\ Bibliotheque  Homosopathique,  Vol.  i.,  p.  378. 


PESCHIER  S   VISIT  TO   HAHNEMANN.  2Sl 

patients.  The  hour  passed  slowly.  I  presented  myself  at  last, 
and  the  old  man  hastened  to  me  and  pressed  me  in  his  arras, 
calling  me  his  son,  his  dear  son ;  on  my  part  I  addressed  him  as 
my  father,  and  kissed  with  respect  the  honorable  hand  that  had 
written  so  much  for  the  good  of  humanity. 

"Time  passed  rapidly  and  already  we  were  conversing  as  two 
friends;  I  told  him  how  I  had  learned  of  his  new  system  and  of 
my  success  in  its  practical  application,  and  he  explained  to 
me  his  opinions  on  the  chronicity  of  diseases,  on  the  method  of 
their  attack  and  the  difl&culty  in  curing  them,  also  that  certain  so- 
called  incurable  affections  ought  not  to  be  so  regarded  by  the 
Homoeopath. 

"  I  said  to  him  that  I  had  not  been  able  to  follow  the  precept 
never  to  repeat  the  same  remedy,  and  that  I  had  not  been  able 
to  discover  the  evil  in  doing  so;  to  which  he  answered  that 
experience  had  caused  him  to  modify  his  system  on  that  point 
and  that  he  now  agreed  to  the  repetition  of  doses,  and  that  he 
had  made  it  the  subject  of  the  first  part  of  the  recent  work  by 
Dr.  Boenninghausen,  entitled  'Alphabetical  and  Systematic 
Repertory  of  the  Action  of  Antipsoric  Remedies.' 

"  Already  the  physicians  of  Leipsic  have  said  that  the  repe- 
tition of  the  dose  is  necessary  in  the  treatment  of  chronic  diseases. 

"But  he  insisted  upon  small  quantity,  and  understanding 
always  the  subtlety  and  divisibility  of  Homoeopathic  medicines, 
he  said  to  me  that  it  is  often  the  case  that  it  is  sufi&cient  to 
smell  of  the  bottle  containing  the  medicament. 

"This  subtlety  is  a. thing  very  well  assured,  and,  as  is  well 
known,  persons  are  often  restored  by  olfaction  of  certain  sub- 
stances from  faintings  and  vertigoes;  until  the  use  of  the  smell- 
ing bottle  has  become  a  habit  of  society. 

"After  this  Hahnemann  instructed  me  in  regard  to  the  action 
of  certain  '  polychrest '  substances  combining  the  action  of 
prompt  and  decisive  remedies  and  those  of  antipsorics,  that 
have  a  very  long  and  continued  action. 

"He  confirmed  me  in  the  opinion  that  had  already  been 
formed  by  experience,  that  antipsorics,  properly  applied,  are 
speedily  successful  in  the  cure  of  maladies,  a  long  time  after  the 
special  affection  for  which  they  ought  to  be  prescribed  has  dis- 
appeared; in  this  case  they  cause  to  disappear  a  host  of  symp- 
toms considered  in  the  face  of  the  more  grave  ones  unimportant; 


282  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

and  a  strong  and  endurable  state  of  health  then  succeeds  the 
habitual  malaise,  while  there  is  a  slight  reappearance  of  the 
malady  for  which  the  physician  had  been  consulted. 

"This  long  and  interesting  conversation  was  prolonged  dur- 
ing a  supper  amicably  offered  and  sumptuously  served  by  the 
two  daughters  of  Hahnemann,  who  rivaled  each  other  in  polite- 
ness and  attention  to  the  friends  of  their  respected  father. 

''After  this  evening  conference  had  been  prolonged  late  into 
the  night,  I  requested  another  for  the  morning,  which  was  affec- 
tionately accorded.  At  the  hotel  where  I  was  staying,  it  was 
customary  to  hear  many  times  during  the  day  the  tramping  of 
horses  at  the  arrival  and  departure  of  the  strangers  who  attended 
from  all  parts  on  account  of  the  great  reputation  and  successful 
practice  of  Hahnemann.  This  hotel  at  this  time  had  a  majority 
of  its  chambers  occupied  by  those  persons  who  had  come  from 
distances  to  consult  the  oracle  of  Homoeopathy;  for  example,  I 
noticed  among  others  a  Dane,  a  Courlander,  a  Hungarian,  a 
Russian  and  a  Silesiau. 

"But  to  return  to  Hahnemann:  at  the  end  of  the  day  I  had 
found  him  occupied  in  a  consultation  on  an  infant  of  a  poor 
woman,  for  the  poor  were  the  same  to  him  as  those  who  had 
riches;  it  taught  me  his  manner  of  proceeding. 

"Hahnemann  writes  punctually  the  totality  of  symptoms,  or 
entire  group  of  sufferings  of  the  patient,  including  all  constitu- 
tional ailments  previously  manifested  in  his  own  person  or  of 
any  hereditary  taints  characteristic  of  his  progenitors.  On  the 
completion  of  his  record,  the  symptoms  of  the  disease  are  most 
carefully  arranged  to  correspond  with  the  indications  of  the  drug 
he  deems  most  appropriate  to  the  case;  but  in  reaching  this  con- 
clusion he  neither  confides  in  his  memory  nor  relies  solely  upon 
his  long  experience,  but  has  constantly  before  him  the  '  Materia 
Medica'  and  Ruckert's  '  Repertory,'  from  whence  he  culls  every 
remedy  the  emergency  of  the  case  demands. 

"As  he  pursues  this  course  towards  every  patient  we  can 
readily  perceive  how  completely  and  incessantly^  his  time  must 
be  occupied  by  the  history  of  his  consultations. 

"The  register  of  his  consultations,  every  day  increasing  in 
magnitude,  forms  at  this  moment  a  stupendous  medical  encyclo- 
paedia. We  have  seen  upon  one  of  the  shelves  of  Hahnemann's 
library   thirty-six  quarto  volumes  of  at  least    500  pages  each. 


PESCHIER  S   VISIT   TO   HAHNEMANN.  283 

entirely  written  by  his  own  hand;  and  to  those  who  are  curious 
as  to  the  penmanship  of  the  venerable  octogenarian,  who  has 
never  used  spectacles,  we  can  testify  to  writing  as  fine  and  beau- 
tiful as  the  mignonne  of  Didot. 

"  But  this  is  only  a  part  of  the  daily  occupation  of  this  great 
man;  medical  correspondence  holds  an  important  place  in  the 
occupation  of  his  time,  and  this  is  truly  immense. 

"  The  collection  of  his  received  letters,  which  are  subsequently 
arranged  into  volumes,  forms  no  trifling  compilation;  and  the 
repertorj^  alone  of  his  letters,  containing  the  names  of  his  cor- 
respondents and  the  dates  of  their  missives,  is  an  enormous 
volume,  in  folio,  which  is  kept  under  the  superintendence  of 
Miss  Hahnemann. 

"All  this  work  absorbed  the  time  of  our  common  master, 
who  regretted  that  he  had  no  more  to  devote  to  the  development 
of  the  science  ;  so  that  he  had  asked  as  an  assistant  Dr.  Lehmann, 
who  would  probabl}^  continue  the  treatment  commenced  and 
only  render  an  account  of  the  results  to  Hahnemann  ;  I  have  had 
the  pleasure  to  take  tea  with  this  doctor,  who  merits  at  the  same 
time  the  confidence  of  the  Master  and  of  the  public. 

"The  father  of  Homoeopathy  possesses  at  Coethen  a  rather 
small  house  that  probably  he  finds  large  enough,  and  which  is 
joined  to  a  very  small  garden  entirely  enclosed  and  screened 
from  sight ;  I  state  this  circumstance,  because  this  same  en- 
closure, which  is  just  twenty-five  foot  paces  long,  is  his  one  and 
only  promenade,  in  which  he  never  puts  off  his  dressing  gown 
and  his  slippers ;  there  are  for  him  neither  fetes  nor  Sundays  ; 
his  patients  do  not  permit  him  to  distinguish  that  day  from 
others. 

"Hahnemann  never  pays  any  visits,  the  people  of  Coethen 
and  their  neighbors,  who  have  recourse  to  his  advice,  send  to 
him  an  account  of  the  condition  of  their  maladies  and  he  sends 
to  them  that  which  is  necessary  ;  I  know  certain  people  of  Leip- 
sic  who  have  sought  counsel  from  him  for  their  relatives  and 
themselves,  sending  over  the  eight  leagues  that  separate  the 
two  villages,  twice  daily,  an  express,  in  acute  diseases. 

"  It  may  be  permitted  me  to  state  that  one  of  the  persons  of 
whom  I  have  spoken,  M.  the  Counsellor  de  Freygang,   consul 
general  of  Russia  at  Leipsic,  is  one  of  the  most  amiable,  best  . 
educated  men  whom  I  have  ever  known,  which  made  his  recep- 
tion in  respect  to  myself  all  the  more  amiable  and  obliging. 


284  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

"  His  respect  for  Hahnemann  is  without  limit;  and  it  is,  they 
say,  to  his  zeal  and  affection  that  the  latter  owes  the  protection 
of  the  Duke  d'Anhalt  Coethen,  whom  M.  de  Freygang  made 
imperfectly  understand  the  glory  that  would  redound  upon  his 
name,  so  that  he  gave  an  honorable  asylum  to  the  useful  savant 
that  his  merit  demanded  from  the  persecution  of  Leipsic.  This 
anecdote,  I  have  never  heard  from  himself,  he  is  too  modest  to 
permit  others  to  understand  his  services. 

"During  many  days,  I  passed  five  and  six  hours  of  the 
evening  and  night  with  Hahnemann,  conversing  with  him  upon 
his  doctrine  and  his  practice,  while  his  amiable  daughters 
lavished  their  cares  and  attentions  in  providing  refreshments,  a 
collation,  a  supper,  which  testified  to  their  abundance 
and  to  their  delicacy  of  pleasing  by  means  of  which 
this  distinguished  family  extended  its  hospitality  to  a  guest 
come  from  so  far. 

"  One  nig'ht  this  politeness  had  for  its  main  object  another 
Swiss,  Doctor  Huber,  of  the  Canton  of  Zurich,  who  had  come  to 
Coethen  solely  to  pay  his  respects  to  Hahnemann  ;  the  meeting 
of  two  Helvetians,  natives  of  the  two  extreme  points  of  their 
country  is  worthy  of  remembrance;  M.  Huber  had  not  assisted 
in  the  Leipsic  fete,  and  only  remained  at  Coethen  a  day. 

"One  other  night,  I  had  for  messmate  M.  the  Russian  Coun- 
sellor Wraski,  who  had  translated  the  'Organon'  into  Russian, 
and  who,  after  a  sojourn  of  some  months  in  Germany,  from 
whence  he  was  carrying  a  complete  pharmacy,  proposed  to  prac- 
tice Homoeopathy  at  home,  upon  his  countr3^men  and  neighbors. 
Without  doubt  he  has  rendered  them  great  services. 

"Iwill  here  mention  that  the  'Organon'  has  already  been  trans- 
lated into  five  languages.  I  have  seen  copies  of  each  one  of 
these  translations  upon  Hahnemann's  table,  that  is  completel}^ 
covered  with  offerings  of  books,  of  brochures  and  Homoeopathic 
journals. 

"It  is  without  doubt  homage  due  to  the  inventor  of  this 
science,  but  in  the  present  name  of  the  author  of  each  work  it  is 
a  homage  inutile,  because  Hahnemann  has  not  the  time  to  read  a 
single  page  of  the  writings  of  others,  and  also  to  record  the  prac- 
tical observations  which  he  has  made  so  precious.       *       -^       * 

"  I  told  him  of  the  success  I  had  obtained  in  the  use  of  spirits 
of  SidpJmr  in    many   chronic    maladies,    and    particularly    in 


LIFE  AT   COETHEN.  285 

phthisis  pulmonalis,  in  the  12th  potency;  he  seemed  both  sur- 
prised and  satisfied  and  asked  me  to  make  it  the  object  of  a 
small  memoir  for  general  use.  I  observed  to  him  that  I  had  con- 
formed to  that  idea  so  simple,  and  so  rich  in  consequence,  con- 
tained in  the  first  volume  of  the  'Chronic  Diseases',  which  asserts 
that  lasting  diseases  of  the  lungs  do  not  exist  without  psoric 
antecedents. 

"  This  thought  struck  him  as  it  has  mj^self,  and  I  have  no 
doubt  that  experience  will  always  justify  it. 

"After  a  stay  in  Coethen  of  about  a  week  I  feared  to 
abuse  the  kindness  of  my  venerable  master,  and  expose  his  com- 
plaisance to  too  great  a  trial  by  my  multiplied  questions;  I, 
therefore,  thought  of  leaving  him. 

"At  the  last  moment,  which  occurred  at  his  home  at  night, 
there  was  a  repetition  of  the  expressions  of  respect  and  esteem 
which  had  accompanied  my  arrival.  I  quitted  him  with  a  deeper 
knowledge,  and  more  impressed  with  veneration  than  ever,  and 
firmly  decided  to  use  every  effort  of  zeal  and  study  to  progress  in 
scientific  attainments,  grateful  for  the  honor  of  so  long  having 
enjoyed  his  fatherly  friendship." 

Peschier  then  gives  an  account  of  the  books  upon  Hahne- 
mann's table  and  of  their  authors,  of  the  progress  of  Homoe- 
opathy and  of  the  coming  meeting  of  the  German  Society. 

In  a  letter  to  Dr.  Stapf,  written  May  19,  1832,  Hahnemann 
thus  mentions  Homoeopathy  in  America:*  "Nowhere  are 
Homoeopaths  better  off  than  in  North  America.  There  only  is 
freedom.  The  day  before  yesterday  a  merchant  called  on  me, 
who  was  very  well  informed  abotit  and  a  proficient  in  the  prac- 
tice of  Homoeopathy.  He  told  me  of  the  great  progress  of  our 
art  in  that  country,  principally  through  the  labors  of  Dr.  Ihm 
there,  and  two  others,  in  Bethlehem  and  Nazareth  (two  Moravian 
colonies),  of  whom  I  only  remember  the  name  of  one.  Dr. 
Freitag." 

In  1829  Hahnemann's  favorite  nephew.  Dr.  Trinius,  a  short 
sketch  of  whose  life  is  given  in  the  chapter  on  Hahnemann's 
family,  wrote  to  him  requesting  him  to  recommend  a  suitable 
Homoeopathic  physician  for  the  Princess  Mary  of  Wirtemberg. 
She  had  been  under  Trinius'  care  in  St.  Petersburg,  where  he 
was  physician  to  the  Czar.  About  this  time  she  had  married 
the    Duke   of    Saxe    Coburg-Gotha   and    removed    to    Coburg. 

*Hom.  World,  Vol.  xxv.,  p.  503. 


286  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

Trinius  accompanied  her,  but  was  obliged  to  return  to  Russia. 
Hahnemann  freely  states  his  opinions  in  regard  to  the  position 
in  the  following  letter:* 

^^  My  Dear  Nepheiv: 

"Your  commission  shows  your  confidence  in  me,  and  that  is 
what  I  wished  to  deserve.  Still,  as  you  cannot  be  aware  how 
inevitable  and  intolerable  are  the  hindrances,  calumnies  and  per- 
secutions which  a  true  Homoeopathic  physician  in  Germany  has 
to  encounter  in  every  place  where  he  settles  as  an  unprotected 
stranger,  so  to  advise  any  Horaoeopathist  to  take  such  a  step  un- 
supported were  to  induce  him  to  court  misfortune.  Under  such 
circumstances  Allopathic  intrigues  have  perfectly  free  scope, 
under  the  pretence  of  ancient  legal  right  to  display  their  well- 
known  malice  against  the  medical  innovator  who  gives  his  medi- 
cines to  his  patients;  and  they  are  supported  by  the  judges 
whose  medical  attendants  they  are.  'What,'  they  say,  'does 
the  horrid  fellow  want  here  ?  He  is  not  authorized  either  by  the 
State  or  by  the  municipal  medical  authorities,  nor  can  he  be,  as 
he  is  an  accursed  Homoeopath.  We  have  the  power  to  pervert 
and  twist  the  old  laws  regulating  medical  practice  (though  they 
only  have  to  do  with  the  compounding  of  Allopathic  mixtures  by 
the  apothecaries)  so  that  they  shall  compel  the  Homoeopath  to  get 
all  his  simple  medicines  prepared  and  dispensed  to  patients  by 
the  apothecaries,  though  they  do  not  understand  how  to  prepare 
them.  In  order  to  crush  the  hateful  Homoeopathy,  which  would 
interfere  with  their  usurious  profits,  the  apothecaries  would  be 
only  too  willing  to  put  no  or  a  wrong  medicine  in  the  powders, 
and  as  the  dose  is  so  minute,  the  deception  would  never  be 
discovered.  But  a  Homoeopath,  left  to  the  mercy  of  the  apothe- 
caries and  not  allowed  to  give  his  own  remedies  to  his  patients, 
is  reduced  to  impotence,  just  like  a  painter  deprived  of  permis- 
sion to  prepare  his  colors,  and  even  worse.  And  if  he  succeeded 
in  surmounting  this  difficulty,  we  could  always  get  up  a  criminal 
process  against  him  in  the  event  of  the  death  of  one  of  his 
patients,  because  he  had  not  adopted  the  treatment  of  our  old 
school.  By  our  artful  persecution  of  his  patients,  and  by  the 
dissemination  of  calumnies  against  his  art,  he  would  be  so  pest- 

*Hom.  World,  Vol.  xxvi.,  p.  151.  Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  xxiii.,  p.  151. 
Vol.  XXX.,  p.  293.     Zeit.f.  horn.  Klinik.,  Vol.  xiii.,  p.  118. 


LETTER  TO   TRINIUS.  287 

ered  and  disheartened  that,  with  the  loss  of  his  money  and 
health,  he  would  take  himself  off  and  relieve  us  of  his  odious 
presence,  which  is  exactly  what  we,  the  dominant  medical  guild, 
desire  with  all  our  hearts.' 

"  Many  such  sad  experiences  have  been  undergone,  so  that  no 
true  Homoeopath  who  cart  make  a  moderate  income  in  his  own 
locality  would  be  so  foolish  as  to  subject  himself  to  such  a  pal- 
pable disadvantage. 

"  Without  a  special  license  from  a  reigning  sovereign,  author- 
izing him  to  exercise  his  beneficent  art,  and  prepare  and  dis- 
pense his  own  medicines  unhindered  by  the  medical  authorities, 
no  worthy  Homoeopath  chosen  by  me  will  or  can  consent  to  set 
up  in  Coburg,  and  even  then  not  before  his  subsistence  is  assured 
by  an  annual  allowance  subscribed  for  by  a  suflScient  number  of 
families;  for  the  Allopaths,  without  exception,  will  seek  to  keep 
the  public  away  from  him  by  the  most  dreadful  calumnies,  so 
that  even  the  very  poorest  will  hardly  dare  to  cross  his  threshold, 
as  I  know  by  experience. 

"But  if  the  ruler  of  the  country  appoints  him  physician  in 
ordinary,  and  gives  him  the  license  above  alluded  to,  he  will 
still  have  to  undergo  the  serious  attacks  of  Allopathic  intrigue ; 
but  he  has  assured  means  of  existence,  which  every  true  phy- 
sician should  possess. 

"  I  can  only  recommend  and  persuade  a  good  Homoeopath  to 
accept  this  post  provided  he  is  appointed  physician  to  the  Duke 
with  a  salary  for  life,  and  is  granted  a  license  authorizing  him 
to  practice  freely — unhindered  by  the  medical  authorities — in 
the  capital  and  surrounding  country,  with  medicines  prepared  by 
himself. 

"If  you  feel  disposed  to  see  once  more  your  loving  uncle 
before  his  exit  from  this  earthly  stage,  then  do  not  hesitate  to 
come  a  little  out  of  your  way  for  his  sake.  Trusting  that  you 
will  do  this,  I  am  your  affectionate  uncle, 

' '  Samuel  Hahnemann. 

'' Coethen,  Septe7nber  ly,  1832. '" 

The  following  week  Hahnemann  advertised  in  the  Zeitung  for 
a  physician,  as  follows:* 

"  A  physician  wanted.     I  am  seeking  for  a  physician  to  go  to 

*Allg.  horn.  Zeitung,  Vol.  1.,  p.  72  (Oct.  11,  1832). 


288  LIFE   OF  HAHNEMANN. 

a  neighboring  city  on  an  assured  salary  of  900  thalers  per  annum- 
He  must  be  one  who  has  taken  a  degree  and  is  legally  qualified 
to  practice  in  the  Prussian  States,  and  who  can  show  himself  to 
be  a  Homoeopathic  practitioner  capable  of  being  my  assistant. 
But  only  one  who  is  sure  of  his  capability  in  Homceopathic 
practice  can  correspond  with  me  post  f;ee. 

"Samuel  Hahnemann,  Ho/rath. 
"  Coethen,  26  September,  1832 ^ 


CHAPTER  LV. 

DR.  GRIESSELICH'S  VISIT  TO  COETHEN — LETTER  TO  DR.  GERSTEL. 

Griesselich  also  visited  Hahnemann  in  1S32  and  thus  speaks 
of  him:*  "Hahnemann  at  the  age  of  seventy  seven  showed  in 
every  action  all  the  fire  of  a  young  man.  No  trace  of  old  age  could 
be  detected  in  his  physical  appearance,  except  the  white  locks 
surrounding  his  temples,  and  the  bald  crown,  which  is  covered 
with  a  velvet  cap.  Small,  and  sturdy  in  form,  Hahnemann  is  lively 
and  brisk;  every  movement  is  full  of  life.  His  eyes  reveal  his 
inquiring  spirit;  they  flash  with  the  fire  of  youth.  His  features 
are  sharp  and  animated.  As  old  age  .seems  to  have  left  few  traces 
on  his  body,  so  it  is  with  his  mind.  His  language  is  fiery  and 
fluent;  often  it  becomes  vehement  as  a  stream  of  lava  against  the 
enemies  and  opponents,  not  of  himself  personally,  for  that  he 
never  alluded  to,  but  of  the  great  truths  to  the  testing  of  which 
he  had  summoned  his  colleagues  for  many  decades.  His  memory 
seems  to  be  unaffected;  after  long  interludes  and  side  conversa- 
tion he  continues  where  he  left  oS". 

"When  he  becomes  heated  in  conversation,  which  often  hap- 
pens, whether  about  friend  or  foe,  or  on  scientific  subjects,  his 
words  flow  forth  uninterruptedly,  his  whole  manner  becomes 
extremely  animated  and  an  expression  appears  on  his  countenance 
which  the  visitor  admires  in  silence.  Perspiration  covers  his 
lofty  brow;  his  cap  is  removed;  even  his  long  pipe — his  trusty 
companion — goes  out  and  must  be  relighted  by  the  taper  that  is 

*  " Skizzen  aus  der  Mappe  eines  reisende  Homoopatheu."  Karlsruhe. 
Groos.  1832.  Also  traus.  in  Ameke's  "History  of  Honiceopathy, "  p.  161. 
Zeit.  horn.  Heilkunst,  Schweikert,  Vol.  ix.,  p.  364.  (Dec.  6,  1834.) 


DR.    GRIESSELICH  S  VISIT   TO   COETHEN.  289 

at  hand  and  kept  burning  all  day.  But  the  white  beer  must  not 
be  forgotten.  The  venerable  old  man  had  so  accustomed  himself 
to  this  sweet  drink  that  it  always  stood  in  a  large  covered  glass 
on  his  table;  -at  his  meals,  too,  he  takes  this  drink,  which  is  un- 
known in  South  Germany.  He  does  not  drink  wine;  his  mode 
of  life  is  very  simple,  abstemious  and  patriarchal." 

Although  in  1832,  when  the  following  letter  was  written,  Hahn- 
emann   was  very  happ)^  and  prosperous,  yet  it  plainly    shows 
that  the  first  years  of  his  stay  in  Coethen  were  embittered  by  the 
medical  hierarchy  of  Anhalt.     It  is  addressed  to  Dr.  Gerstel.''' 
''Dear  CoUeagtie: 

"I  have  read  with  great  pleasure  what  Dr.  Gross  wrote  to  me 
on  the  report  sent  by  you,  and  am  surprised  that  the  authorities 
have  given  you  such  good  (so  true)  testimonials,  and  I  beg  you 
to  make  them  known  in  several  widely  circulated  newspapers. 
You  cannot  believe  how  much  good  is  done  by  a  well  deserved 
vote  of  thanks,  and  how  much  you  stimulate  other  authorities  to 
render  similar  services  to  the  cause  of  Homoeopathy.  Hitherto, 
the  Homoeopathists  could  bring  forward  nothing  but  bitter  com- 
plaints about  the  injustice  and  neglect  that  were  shown  them. 

"And  however  pardonable  such  complaints  and  accusations 
might  be,  still  they,  nevertheless,  made  a  bad  impression  on  the 
public,  and  by  no  means  tended  to  raise  Homoeopathy  in  its  es- 
timation. I  have  therefore  never  openly  made  a  grievance  of 
the  bitter  and  cruel  enmities  which  were  shown  to  me  during  the 
first  five  or  six  years  of  my  residence  here.  .  For  I  would  far 
rather  be  envied  than  pitied.  Yet  I  would,  if  possible,  avoid  the 
former. 

"It  is  only  within  the  last  few  years  that  I  have  been  able  so 
to  win  over  and  convince,  of  the  superiority  of  our  art,  the  public, 
which  for  years  had  been  prejudiced  and  hounded  on  against  me 
by  Allopaths,  apothecaries  and  surgeons,  that  now  even  this 
same  public  are  so  much  the  more  angry  with  the  doctors  and 
apothecaries,  and  prefer  me  so  much  above  all  others,  that  I  am 
quite  at  a  loss  how  to  take  in  all  the  patients;  I  am,  as  it  were, 
carried  off  my  feet.  So  I  thought  things  had  happened  for  the 
best,  and  my  opinion  is  you  have  no  need  to  be  afraid  of  the  ill- 
will  of  your  colleague  in  Moravia,  for  in  your  country  the  fright- 
ful impediment  to  Homoeopathic  practice,    i.  e. ,  the  prohibition 

*  Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  xv.,  p.  336.      Prager  Blonatscrift,  Vol.  v.,  p.  32. 


290  LIFE   OF   HAHNEMANN. 

to  dispense  our  own  medicines,  is,  as  you  assure  me,  done  away 
with.  This  impediment  still  exists  in  almost  all  other  countries 
and  renders  Homoeopathy  almost  impracticable  here  except  to 
me  alone,  as  I  have  a  letter  of  permission  from  the  Sovereign 
of  the  Land.  That  the  doctors  in  Brunn  could  hunt  out  Mr. 
Fischer,  who  was  certainly  a  very  capable  man,  arose  from  the 
circumstance  that  he  had  no  diploma;  and  in  this  respect  they 
can  do  nothing  against  you. 

"The  public  in  Brunn  is  already  favorably  disposed  towards 
Homoeopathy,  and,  therefore,  I  would  not  counsel  you  against 
establishing  yourself  there.  From  the  Prague  bills  of  mortality, 
which  I  have  consulted  diligently,  it  appeared  to  be  plainly 
shown  that  you  cannot  have  had  your  hands  free  to  act  there, 
otherwise  the  rate  of  mortality  would  have  been  more  favorable, 
and  a  number  of  patients  would  have  been  rescued  from  death  by 
your  aid.  It  would  please  me  to  receive  further  good  news  from 
you. 

"Your  devoted, 

"Sam.  Hahnemann." 

"  Coethen,  12th  February,  1832.'''' 

Rapou  pere  visited  Hahnemann  in  1833,  and  afterwards  ad- 
dressed the  Lyons  Society  of  Medicine  upon  the  subject.  He 
says:*  "I  was  unable,  upon  seeing  Hahnemann,  to  restrain 
from  the  feeling  of  veneration  that  this  man  of  genius  and 
science  impressed  upon  me.  His  white  hair,  his  grave  air  and 
stern  mien  tempered  by  very  aifable  manners;  his  high  forehead, 
his  look  vivacious  and  piercing  and  the  hidden  irony  of  his 
smile  revealing  well  the  profound  thought,  ripened  by  experi- 
ence, and  the  merciless  criticism  that  has  so  bitterly  assailed  the 
vain  and  pretentious  doctrines  of  the  schools. 

"The  first  conference  that  I  had  with  him  was  the  day  after 
my  arrival,  and  continued  from  four  till  ten  o'clock.  He  had 
closed  the  door,  constantly  besieged  by  a  throng  of  sick  people, 
so  that  I  might  the  more  benefit  by  the  time  which  he  gave  to 
me.  We  spoke  of  the  great  spread  of  the  new  method  in  all 
the  countries  near  Germany,  and  of  its  already  important  posi- 
tion in  Austria,  where  its  introduction  had  to  encounter  almost 
innumerable  obstacles. 

*  "  Histoire  de  la  Doctrine  Medicale  Homceopathique, "  Paris.  1S47. 
Vol.  ii.,  p.  2S8. 


DR.    RAPOU  S   VISIT   TO   COETHEN.  29 1 

"I  spoke  of  my  knowledge  of  Homoeopathy,  and  requested 
information  regarding  the  better  methods  to  be  acquired  to  give 
it  value  and  permit  me  to  entirely  renounce  the  ordinary  medi- 
cal practice. 

"He  thought  a  moment,  and  after  having  passed  in  review 
the  principles  expounded  in  the  "  Organon  "  he  proposed  to  me 
a  plan  of  study  that  I  have  the  happiness  of  at  present  follow- 
ing. It  consists  in  a  combination  of  clinical  and  pathogenetic 
researches  to  determine  the  choice  of  the  remedy  by  character- 
istic indications.         *         ^         * 

"The  next  day  Hahnemann  gave  me  an  interview  at  the 
same  hour,  and  showed  me  some  volumes  of  his  immense  corre- 
spondence. Among  other  letters  were  those  of  Dr.  Mauro,  of 
Naples,  who  at  the  age  of  60  had  issued  the  result  of  his  study 
of  Homoeopathy  in  a  book  ;  of  the  celebrated  Kiesselbach,  of 
Hanan  ;  of  Paubel,  from  Gotha;  of  the  Counsellor  Klein,  all  of 
whom  at  an  advanced  age  are  studying  with  zeal  the  new  doc- 
trine. But  that  which  interested  me  the  most  was  a  letter  from 
Dr.  Biett,  in  which  he  asked  Hahnemann  for  light  upon  his 
method,  a^d  besought  him  to  send  him  a  collection  of  properly 
prepared  remedies  in  which  he  had  confidence." 

In  the  eighth  number  of  the  Allgemeine  homoopathische  Zeitung, 
published  September  30,  1832,  Dr.  Hartmann  published  a  list 
of  physicians  who  were  known  to  be  practicing  Homoeopathy; 
this  list  embraces  226  names,  among  whom  are  "Hering,  of 
Surinam;  Wesselhoeft,  of  Pennsylvania;  Bute,  of  Bethlehem,  in 
Pennsylvania;  Haynel,  of  Baltimore,  in  North  America." 

From  1S30  to  1835  the  quiet  little  village  of  Coethen  became 
the  school  hou!-e  of  Homoeopathy. 

The  most  liberal  of  the  physicians  and  many  laymen  had  heard 
with  interest  of  the  new  and  mild  method  of  healing,  and  a  great 
many  of  them  journeyed  to  the  home  of  the  old  master  to  sit  at 
his  feet. 

In  fact  the  history  ot  the  introduction  of  Homoeopathy  into 
several  countries  commences  with  the  visit  of  some  physician  or 
layman  to  the  old  sage,  Hahnemann,  in  the  vine  covered  arbor 
of  the  little  garden  at  Coethen. 

Thus  about  1830  Benitua  Iriarte,  a  rich  merchant  of  Cadiz, 
with  his  friend  Villalba,  went  to  Coethen  and  soon  after  intro- 
duced Homoeopathy  into  Spain.* 

*Rapou's  "Histoire  de  la  doct.  med.  Homoeopathique,"  Vol.  i,  p.  175. 


292  LIFE    OF   HAHNEMANN. 

Dr.  F.  F.  Quit!  visited  Hahnemann  in  1821,  and  in  1827  carried 
the  new  doctrine  to  England. 

Dr.  Adam  met  Hahnemann  in  1823,  and  soon  after  introduced 
Homoeopathy  into  Russia,  commencing  its  practice  in  St.  Peters- 
burg. Dr.  Adam  was  also  one  of  the  provers  of  the  "Materia 
Medica  Pura.''  At  this  period  Hahnemann's  time  was  greatly 
occupied  in  receiving  his  distinguished  visitors  from  all  parts  of 
the  world. 


CHAPTER  LVI. 

HISTORY    OF    LEIPSIC    HOMCEOPATHIC     HOSPITAL — LETTERS     TO 
MULLER. 

As  has  previously  been  stated,  the  Fiftieth  Fest-Jubilee  was 
the  origin  of  the  German  Homoeopathic  Central  Union,  which 
since  that  date  had  met  yearly  on  the  loth  of  August.*  The 
first  meeting  was  held  in  Leipsic  in  1830.  Dr.  Moritz  Muller 
was  President.  Everything  was  harmonious,  and  the  rules  of  the 
Society  were  for  the  first  time  drafted.  The  meeting  of  1831, 
under  the  Presidency  of  Dr.  Stapf,  occurred  at  Naumburg.  Hart- 
mann  says  that  this  meeting  was  largely  attended  on  account  of  the 
interest  in  the  cholera  then  prevailing  and  the  hope  that  Hahn- 
emann would  send  some  communication  regarding  its  treatment. 
In  1832  it  met  at  Leipsic.  Dr.  Schweikert  was  President.  It 
was  held  in  the  evening,  and  after  the  address  and  the  scientific 
papers  Dr.  Schweikert,  Sr.,  made  a  proposition  to  establish, 
with  the  funds  then  on  hand,  a  Homoeopathic  hospital  at  Leipsic. 
He  had  already  interested  Hahnemann  in  the  project.  The  cap- 
ital from  the  Coethen  celebration  had  now  by  contributions 
reached  the  sum  of  4000  thalers.  It  was  unanimously  decided. 
to  use  this  money  to  establish  a  Homoeopathic  hospital  and  med- 
ical school  at  Eeipsic. 

Dr.  Schweikert  was  especially  enthusiastic  regarding  the  pro- 
ject, and  even  volunteered  to  take  charge  of  the  new  hospital 
without  remuneration,  and  to  remove  from  Grimma  to  Leipsic 
for  the  purpose.     Dr.  Moritz  Muller  was  elected  director  of  the 

*  Allg.  horn.  Zeit.,  Vol.  xxvi.  Brit.  Jour.  Ham.,  Vol.  xxx.,  p.  464.  A^.  W.. 
four.  Horn.,  Vol.  iv,  p.  275.  .  Schweikert' s  Jour.,  Sept.  i,  1830. 


HISTORY   OF   LEIPSIC   HOSPITAL.  293 

hospital  for  the  ensuing  year,  and  with  energy  and  with  great 
influence  he  commenced  to  labor  for  its  successful  opening. 

Dr.  MuUer  was  a  notable  man.  Born  August  i,  1784,  at 
Olebitz,  near  Wittenberg,  he  attended  the  Gymnasium  at  Tor- 
gau  from  the  age  of  eleven  to  seventeen,  when  he  entered  the 
University  of  Wittenberg.  It  was  there  that  he  first  met 
Schweikert,  who  became  a  Homoeopathist  through  his  influ- 
ence. Dr.  Muller  went  to  Leipsic  in  his  twenty-first  year,  and 
soon  was  appointed  first  Clinical  Lecturer  and  Under  Surgeon 
in  Jacob's  Hospital.  Three  years  later  he  took  entire  charge  of 
the  hospital. 

He  received  his  degree  as  doctor  in  18 10.  In  1813,  when 
Napoleon's  army  was  fleeing  from  Russia,  and  when  the  camp- 
typhus  prevailed  in  Europe,  so  that  dwellings,  school  houses 
and  churches  were  utilized  as  hospitals,  Muller  had  charge  of 
one. 

Hartmann  says  of  him: ^  "I  remember  one  day  in  the  year 
1 819  Muller  sent  his  secretary  to  me  with  the  request  that  I 
would  lend  him  my  'Organon'  to  look  through;  I  gave  it  to 
him,  shaking  my  head,  with  the  remark  that  a  star  of  such 
magnitude  in  the  Allopathic  firmament  would  scarcely  come  to 
have  a  right  representation  of  Homoeopathy.  Nevertheless,  as 
often  happens  in  this  life,  I  deceived  myself;  the  power  of  truth 
soon  became  manifest  in  Muller's  clear  and  unprejudiced  mind, 
and  he  became  a  complete  convert." 

Dr.  Muller  always  held  an  important  place  among  the  early 
followers  of  Hahnemann.  He  had  a  very  extensive  practice, 
and  was  greatly  respected. 

He  had  a  presentiment  that  he  would  die  of  cholera ;  upon  its 
approach  he  used  extra  care  in  his  food.  Hartmann  says  :  "On 
the  22d  of  September  he  visited  me  early,  in  good  spirits;  the 
next  day  I  heard  that  he  had  been  seized  with  diarrhoea,  but 
that  he  was  cheerful,  and  merely  keeping  his  bed  by  way  of  pre- 
caution; on  the  24th  instant,  at  half  past  5  A.  M.,  vomiting  set 
in,  accompanied  by  icy  coldness  and  a  pulseless  state,  yet  he 
complained  but  little  of  pain;  already  in  the  afternoon  all  hope 
of  his  recovery  was  over,  and  at  six  o'clock  P.  M.  he  sunk  to 
rest."     This  was  on  September  24th,  1848,  at  Leipsic. 

Hahnemann  seemed  at  this  time  to  be  greatly  pleased  with 

*  Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  viii.,  p.  268. 


294  'Ll'P'E   OF   HAHNEMANN, 

Muller's  zeal,  and  in  September,  1832,  he  wrote  him  the  follow- 
ing kindly  letters:* 

' '  Dear  Colleague  : 

"A  press  of  patients  has  made  it  impossible  until  now  to  con- 
sider duly  my  obligations  and  return  you  my  best  thanks  for 
your  plain  summary  of  the  Festival  on  the  nth  of  August.  I 
cannot  sufficiently  assure  you  how  much  I  am  interested  in  the 
whole  affair,  and  particularly  in  the  organization  of  the  Union. 
In  the  allotment  of  medical  diplomas  to  Homoeopathic  students 
who  distinguish  themselves  I  consider  it  a  good  plan  to  make 
special  mention  of  those  who  do  the  best  and  are  the  best  pupils, 
and  thus  encourage  them  to  become  true  disciples  of  the  art  of 
healing.  This  seems  to  me  so  much  the  more  necessary  since 
there  are  still  many  who  palm  themselves  off  as  Homoeopathists; 
but,  influenced  by  the  old  doctrine  which  they  were  obliged  to 
learn,  still  use  this  and  that  Allopathic  remedy  in  their  practice, 
a  custom  which  is  wholly  inconsistent  with  true  Homceopa^thy, 
just  as  those  who  worship  the  true  God,  occasionally  offer  sacri- 
fices to  Baal,  while  every  one  who  understands  precisely  what  our 
healing  art  can  accomplish  never  has  any  need  to  let  a  drop  of 
blood,  nor  to  resort  to  emetics  or  laxatives,  or  even  a  single 
stimulating  remedy  other  than  Homoeopathic. 

"  I  have  needed  nothing  of  the  kind  for  the  past  thirty  years, 
and  yet  have  healed  with  the  best  results.  Therefore,  wherever 
you  can  eradicate  from  the  minds  of  our  pupils  false  notions,  oc- 
casioned either  by  misunderstanding  of  our  merciful  art  or  by 
the  old  Allopathic  practice,  do  so  by  all  means  ;  and  I  request 
you,  dear  associate,  to  say  to  them  that  there  is  no  conceivable 
case  of  disease  where  the  old  practice  is  still  necessarj'  and,  in- 
deed, where  it  is  not  harmful,  that  cannot  be  treated  better 
Homoeopathically.  Let  them  tread  in  my  footsteps,  which,  ever 
since  I  have  demonstrated  the  better  way,  have  never  been 
soiled  by  the  filth  of  the  old-time  practice. 

"  I  wish  most  heartily,  as  I  have  already  stated  in  my  answer 
to  the  letter  of  our  friend  Haubold,  who  as  Secretary  of  the 
Central  Union  desired  my  signature,  that  we  may  soon  be  so 
fortunate  as  to  establish,  under  Royal  sanction,  a  hospital  contain- 
ing two  or  three  instructors   and    Homoeopathic  practitioners, 

*  "  Zur  Geschichte  der  Homoopathie,'.'  Vou  Dr.  Moritz  MuUer,  Leipzig, 
1837,  P-  30. 


LETTERS   TO    MULLER.  295 

where  the  pure  system  of  Homoeopath}^  can  be  shown  in  the 
treatment  of  all  kinds  of  patients,  and  where  it  can  be  demon- 
strated how  successfully  they  can  be  brought  to  convalescence 
in  every  case  of  disease  without  having  to  resort  in  the  least  to 
those  old  quack  mal- treatments  of  the  sick.  Only  by  opening  a 
hospital  thus  conducted  will  we  be  able  to  triumph  over  the  old 
practice  and  to  say:  '  Come  here  and  look,  and  be  confounded  !' 
"With  usual  esteem,  yours, 

"Samuel  Hahnemann." 
''Coethen,  24.  September,  18 J2.'" 


LETTER   II. 
' '  Dear  Colleague  : 

"It  is  strange  that  the  Munich  speculation,  the  establishment 
of  a  Homoeopathic  hospital,  with  the  aid  of  our  capital  of  3000 
thalers,  has  kindled  in  you  the  heroic  resolution  to  found  with 
so  small  a  beginning  as  3000,  thalers  an  Institution  similar  ta 
the  present  large  Orphan  Asylum  founded  by  Francke  at  Halle, 
with  scarcely  any  money  in  his  pocket. 

"  And  it  is  still  more  wonderful  that  you  had  the  heart  to  ask 
authorization  and  assistance  from  the  Saxon  Government,  whose 
servitude  under  the  petticoat  administration  of  the  hostile  Dres- 
den Board  of  Health  you  know  so  well.  It  was  a  great  present 
from  the  opposite  party,  and  I  am  astonished  that  you  did  not 
prohibit  it.  I  would  not  have  imagined  that  you  would  permit  it. 
Yet  audaces  fortuna  juvat !  On  the  contrary,  your  City  Council 
has  shown  itself  more  praiseworthy,  especially  if  you  procure  for 
the  establishment  the  rights  of  religious  institutions. 

"I  am  very  much  astonished  also  at  the  small  price  for  which 
you  have  purchased  a  house  with  so  much  room.  In  a  word,  I 
see  in  the  whole  proceeding  the  remarkable  Providence  of  God 
in  enabling  us  to  procure  for  our  healing  art  an  indispensable 
need,  and  to  show  publicl}'^  and  in  a  matter-of-fact  way  that  art 
to  friends  and  foes  and  prove  its  superiority  to  the  old  practice. 
The  first  planning  will  require  the  greatest  pains.  We  must 
try  to  avoid  obvious  mistakes.  As  soon  as  you  shall  have  but 
three  beds  containing  invalids  you  will  have  an  effective  be- 
ginning of  the  Institute,  and  friends  and  well-wishers  will  be 
sympathetically    summoned    through     Homoeopathic      papers  ; 


296  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

through  the  AIIg.Anzeig.  der  Deutschlands,  the  Augsburg  Allgem. 
Zeitung^  through  the  Genfer  ho7noopathische  Joiiryial,  and  thus 
through  all  literary  channels  to  rear  by  your  benevolence  a  Medi- 
cal Institute  as  it  will  be  called  in  its  very  infancy.  I  wish  a 
sketch  of  this  from  your  energetic  pen. 

"And,  if  I  do  not  mistake,  rich  blessings  of  praise  will  soon 
follow  in  streams ;  and  having  printed  a  few  of  them  they  can  be 
disseminated  in  behalf  of  our  glorious  cause.     I    would    like    to 
send  you  a  couple,  of  about  a  hundred  pages  each,  myself. 
"  I  conclude  with  best  wishes, 

"Yours  most  devotedly, 

"S.  Hahnemann." 

Coethen,  28th  Sept.  1832:' 

Hartmann  says  that  everything  up  to  this  time  was  satisfactory, 
and  that  a  favorable  issue  seemed  certain.  But  from  some  cause, 
on  the  13th  day  of  October,  1832,  Schweikert  declined  the  post 
of  director  that  he  had  previously  wished  to  take  without  pay 
and  that  he  had  previously  told  Dr.  Muller  that  Hahnemann 
wished  him  (Schweikert)  to  assume. 

Hahnemann  now  seemed  to  turn  against  Dr.  Muller.  Dr. 
Gustave  Puhlraan,  in  his  history  of  Homoeopathy  in  German3% 
says:* 

"The  Central  Society  from  which  Samuel  Hahnemann  had 
withdrawn  some  years  before  was  reorganized  on  a  broad  and 
democratic  basis,  and  it  wag  decided  to  admit  into  membership 
any  physician  who  showed  some  interest  in  the  cause,  even  if  he 
did  not  practice  Homoeopathy  exclusively. 

"Hahnemann  expressed  his  disapproval  of  this  movement  to 
some  friends,  and  when  the  society  elected  Moritz  Miiller  as  direc- 
tor instead  of  Schweikert,  the  progressive  tendencies  of  the 
former  having  excited  his  displeasure,  he  feared  that  his  method 
would  not  be  strictly  carried  out  according  to  his  intentions." 

Dr  Fischer,  of  Weingarten,  says:t  The  tendency  of  the  Central 
Society  to  think  for  themselves,  which  was  prominently  displayed 
at  the  meeting  in  1832,  excited  the  displeasure  of  Hahnemann, 
who,  moreover,  fancied  he  saw  a  dangerous  rival  in  Moritz  Muller, 
the  director  chosen  for  the  next  year. 

*"Trans.  World's  Horn.  Convention."   1876,  Vol.  ii.,  p.  23. 
\Brit.Jour  Horn.  Vol.  xxx,  p.  465. 


MUI.LER  S   ACCOUNT   OP   THE   HOSPITAL.  297 


CHAPTER  LVII. 

MULLER'S  account    of    the    hospital — LETTER    TO  THE  HALF- 
HOMGEOPATHISTS  OF  LEIPSIC. 

Dr.  MuUer  says:|  "Closely  connected  with  the  hospital  pro- 
ject was  the  eventual  organization,  so  long  contemplated  by 
myself  and  others,  of  the  General  Homoeopathic  Societ5^  I  be- 
lieve this  was  also  embraced  in  the  proposition  by  Schweikert, 
who  was  then  one  of  the  directors  ofthe  "Central."  Schweikert 
and  the  local  society  at  Leipsic  appointed  me  to  elaborate  the 
necessary  plans.  I  discharged  this  duty,  and  after  presenting 
several  plans  and  making  the  changes  which  it  seemed  best  to 
make,  there  was  had  the  sanction  of  the  local  society-  and  the  res- 
olution to  submit  the  matter  to  the  Central. 

"Two  or  three  days  before  the  meeting  of  the  Central  Society 
the  resident  members  of  the  Leipsic  Society,  acting  upon  the 
suggesting  of  Franz,  concluded  to  vote  for  Schweikert  as  director 
for  the  ensuing  year,  thus  to  facilitate  the  carrying  out  of  the 
hospital  project.  A  General  Convention  took  place  on  August 
loth.  It  sanctioned  the  Constitution  and  By-Laws  (in  which,  at 
the  suggestion  of  the  General  Convention,  several  changes  were 
still  made,  so  that  it  did  not  pass  into  the  hands  of  the  printer 
until  November  loth)  and  the  founding  of  an  hospital  at  Leipsic. 
In  accordance  with  the  by-laws,  the  board  of  directors  (for  the 
ensuing  year)  of  the  General  Convention  were  authorized  to  su- 
perintend the  starting  of  the  hospital  and  to  select  among  the 
leading  physicians  one  or  more  as  its  medical  staff.  The  nomi- 
nation to  this  position  was  left  to  the  resident  directors  of  the 
society  upon  the  special  motion  of  the  Convention  itself  or  of  the 
board  of  directors. 

"The  constitution  itself  was  democratic,  aiming  to  peace- 
fully unite  both  factions.  Every  friend  of  Homoeopathy  became 
a  member  by  giving  proof  in  some  way  of  his  interest  in  its 
welfare.  Every  physician  who  was  a  member  had  a  right  to 
vote  on  medical  questions.  Of  exclusive  Homoeopathic  practice, 
as  little  was  said  as  heretofore.     It  had  never  occurred  to  the 

t"Zur  Geschichte  der  Homoopathie."  Leipzig,  Reclam,  1837.  Med. 
Counsellor,  VoL  xi.,  p.  497. 


29S  LIFE   OF    HAHNEMANN. 

writer  of  the  Constitution  and  By-Laws  that  Hahnemann  ex- 
pected to  embrace  in  this  Society  only  those  physicians  who 
were  exclusively  Homoeopathic.  Had  not  Hahnemann,  three 
years  previously,  at  the  organization  of  the  General  Homoeopathic 
Convention,  refused  his  co-operation  in  any  shape?  And  had 
not  all  who  later  called  themselves  his  'pure'  disciples  sanc- 
tioned the  draft  without  raising  an  objection,  and  voted  to  make 
it  a  law? 

"The  law-making  power  was  vested  wholly  in  the  General 
Convention.  At  the  election  of  directors  held  at  the  General 
Convention  the  desire  of  the  members  of  the  Leipsic  Society  to 
secure  Schweikert's  election  to  the  presidency  miscarried.  The 
majority  of  votes  called  me  to  the  presidency,  while  I  am  sure 
that  the  members  of  the  Leipsic  Society  had  voted  for  Schweikert. 
Had  this  result  been  anticipated,  and  had  I  been  requested  to 
decline  this  election  in  case  it  should  fall  upon  me,  I  should 
have  done  so,  just  as  I  cheerfully  pledged  myself  to  vote  for 
Schweikert.  My  acceptance  implied  no  breach  of  faith,  and  it 
did  not  at  that  time  appear  to  me  an  obstacle  in  the  way  of 
starting  an  hospital  if  the  physician  selected  for  the  hospital 
superintendency  was  not  also  the  president  of  the  Society. 

"The  other  members  of  the  Board  of  Directors  were  Schwei- 
kert, Stapf,  Gross,  Rummel,  Muhlenbein,  Hartlandson,  Raehl, 
Wolf,  Trinks,  and  of  the  Leipsic  physicians,  Hartmann,  Haubold, 
Franz  and  Schubert. 

"As  president  of  the  Society,  I  secured  within  four  weeks  the 
permission  of  the  Government  of  Saxony  to  erect  a  Homoeo- 
pathic hospital  out  of  private  funds,  certain  promises  from  the 
city  government,  and  soon  after,  and  with  the  efficient  help  of 
Haubold,  an  appropriative  building  and  the  necessary  furniture. 

"On  October  27,  seventy-eight  days  after  the  tenth  of  August, 
in  order  to  insure  the  opening  of  the  hospital  with  the  new  3'ear, 
I  was  able  to  call  together  the  resident  directors  in  order  to  for- 
mally nominate  the  candidates  for  the  hospital  positions,  and 
then  to  have  the  full  board  select  from  them  a  superintendent. 
I  proposed  Schweikert  as  the  man  for  the  position,  and  the 
others  present,  Hartmann,  Haubold  and  Franz,  coincided  with 
me.  I  appointed  the  opening  of  the  ballots  and  the  result  of 
the  election  for  November  loth.  After  we  had  risen  to  adjourn, 
it  occurred  to  Haubold,  at  that  time  Schweikert's  most  intimate 
friend,  to  propose  me  as  a  candidate,  the  others  concurring. 


MULLER  S   ACCOUNT  OF   THE   HOSPITAI..  299 

'"Since  it  was  a  well-known  fact  that  the  Leipsic  physicians 
for  three  months  had  been  a  unit  in  advocating  the  election  of 
Schweikert;  since  the  other  members  of  the  board  had  for  two 
months  known  and  concurred  in  this  fact,  since  we  were  only- 
going  through  a  certain  legal  formality,  the  proposition  seemed 
to  me  a  ni^re  courtesy,  and  at  the  same  time  a  matter  of  satis- 
faction to  Hahnemann  who  had  asked  me  to  become  a  candidate, 
and  from  whom  I  had  exacted  the  promise  that  he  would  not 
nominate  me  for  the  medical  superintendency  of  the  hospital. 

"And  since  Schweikert  had  particularly  expressed  a  wish  for 
my  aid  in  teaching,  securing  my  pledge  to  that  effect,  I  had  no. 
hesitancy  to  allow  this  last  proposition  to  be  spread  upon  the 
minutes,  with  the  qualifications  on  my  part  that  I  would  not  ac- 
cept the  position  and  consider  the  matter  a  mere  formality.  I 
did  all  this,  not  knowing  what  had  just  taken  place  at  Coethen, 
and  wholly  unconscious  that  I  was  suspected  of  an  itching  for 
the  hospital  superintendency. 

"  Under  each  copy  of  the  proceedings  which  was  sent  to  dis- 
tant members,  Stapf,  Gross,  Wolf,  Trinks,  Rummel,  Muhlen- 
bein,  Hartland  and  Roehl,  to  elect  the  superintendent,  I  wrote 
with  my  own  hand  that  I  would  not  accept  the  position  and  that 
Schweikert  was  the  only  man  for  it.  Since  it  was  not  to  be  as- 
sumed that  Schweikert  would  vote  for  himself,  and  since  I  did 
not  know  that  he  considered  me  his  rival,  this  postscript,  so  far 
as  I  know,  was  not  added  to  the  copy  sent  to  Schweikert. 

"Two  days  before  this  Haubold  had  privately  communicated 
to  me  Schweikert' s  secret  wish  that  the  president  of  the  Society 
might  allow  him  as  hospital  superintendent  the  yearly  salary  of 
two  hundred  thalers.  In  the  first  flush  of  enthusiasm  Schwei- 
kert had  offered  to  assume  the  management  of  the  hospital  with- 
out any  remuneration;  with  equal  enthusiasm,  the  General  Con- 
vention had  voted  on  August  loth  that  the  hospital  physicians 
should  act  without  salary.  (No  one  knew  the  expenses  of  the 
Institution,  and  it  was  thought  that  the  funds  on  hand  would 
not  be  sufficient  for  a  year.) 

"I  here  showed  my  lack  of  knowledge  of  the  world  and  of 
men,  as  well  as  of  executive  ability,  by  refusing  this  request  on 
the  plea  that  I  had  no  authority  to  grant  it.  I  had  then  as  yet 
failed  to  realize  that  Schweikert  had  lost  his  desire  to  act  with- 
out salary,  and  that  the  resolution  to  employ  unsalaried  ofiicials 
would  sooner  or  later  be  reconsidered  as  wholly  impracticable. 


300  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

"The  majority  of  distant  members  of  the  board  had  already 
sent  me  their  vote,  and  I  could  already  calculate  that  Schwei- 
kert's  election  would  be  unanimous,  when  there  appeared  un- 
expectedly, on  the  morning  of  November  3d,  in  the  Leipziger 
Tageblatt  (daily  journal},  a  letter  from  Hahnemann,  dated  Oc- 
tober 23d,  in  which  those  Homoeopathic  physicians  of  Leipsic, 
who  did  not  exclusively  practice  Homoeopathy  (Muller,  Hart- 
mann,  Haubold),  without  being  mentioned  by  name,  were  de- 
nounced as  silly  confounders  of  Homoeopathy  and  Allopathy,  as 
immoral  scum  of  humanity,  who  aimed  to  become  teachers  in 
the  new  hospital  and  thus  to  imperil  the  new  doctrine." 

The  following  is  the  letter  of  which  Dr  Muller  speaks,  and 
which  without  warning  was  published  in  the  Tageblatt  for  No- 
vember 3d,  1832,  falling  like  a  bomb  upon  the  minds  of  the  fol- 
lowers of  the  stern,  old  man  : 

"A  WORD  TO  THE  HALF  HOMCEOPATHISTS  OF  LEIPSIC." 

"  I  have  heard  for  a  long  time  and  with  displeasure  that  some 
in  Leipsic  who  pretend  to  be  Homoeopathists  allow  their  patients 
to  choose  whether  they  shall  be  treated  Homoeopathically  or 
Allopathically;  whether  it  is  that  they  are  not  as  yet  thoroughly 
grounded  in  the  true  spirit  of  the  new  doctrine,  or  that  they  lack 
due  benevolence  to  their  species,  or  that,  contrary  to  their  better 
convictions,  they  scruple  not  to  dishonor  their  profession  for  the 
sake  of  sordid  gain,  let  them  not  require  that  I  should  recognize 
them  as  my  true  disciples. 

"It  is  remarkable,  and  a  striking  indication  of  the  power  of 
improvement  of  the  new  system,  that  in  no  place  where  this 
system  has  even  moderately  flourished  are  there  such  Homoeo- 
pathic-Allopathic mongrels  to  be  found,  it  grieves  me  to  say  it, 
as  in  Leipsic,  which  has  hitherto  been  so  dear  to  me. 

"Blood  letting,  the  application  of  leeches  and  Spanish  flies,  the 
use  of  fontanels  and  setons,  mustard  plasters  and  medicated  bags, 
frictions  with  salves  and  aromatic  spirits,  emetics,  purgatives, 
various  sorts  of  warm  baths,  destructive  doses  of  Calomel  and 
Quinine,  Opium  and  Musk,  these,  and  other  quackeries,  in  con- 
nection with  the  use  of  Homoeopathic  remedies,  are  sufficient  to 
identify  these  crypto- Homoeopathists  seeking  to  gain  public  favor 
as  a  lion  is  known  by  his  claws;  let  such  be  avoided,  for  they  regard 
neither  the  welfare  of  the  patient  nor  the  honor  of  the  profession, 
the  name  of  which  they  2isurp  for  the  purpose  of  gain. 


MULLER  S    ACCOUNT   OF   THE    HOSPITAL.  3OI 

"They  rear  their  heads  in  the  cradle  of  Homoeopathic  doctrine, 
as  they  delight  to  call  Leipsic  ;  in  the  cradle  of  the  Homoeopathic 
doctrine,  where  its  founder  was  first  recognized  as  a  teacher!  de- 
part from  me,  ye  vile  medical  changelings! 

"Either  be  honorable,  as  Allopathists  of  the  old  fraternity, 
ignorant  as  yet  of  anything  better,  or  as  pure  Homoeopathists, 
for  the  welfare  of  our  suffering  brotherhood  of  mankind.  But  so 
long  as  ye  wear  your  double  viasks,  so  long  shall  ye  be  the  most  con- 
temptible hybrids  of  all  who  style  them,selves  physicia?is,  and  the 
most  pernicious. 

"Once  more,  and  for  the  last  time,  I  exhort  you  to  quit  this 
disingenuous  course  and  set  a  better  example,  and  one  worthy  of 
imitation  to  those  abroad. 

'  'But  he  who  from  this  day  forward  hesitates  to  follow  this  faith- 
ful advice,  to  prove  himself  in  word  and  deed  a  Homoeopathist, 
let  him  never  come  again  to  Coethen  while  I  behold  the  light  of 
day,  for  he  may  look  for  no  friendly  reception. 

"But  if  ye  will  continue  in  this  deceitful  and  dishonorable 
course,  do  ye  alone  bear  the  disgrace. 

"Now  when  an  Institution  is  about  to  be  founded  for  the  fair 
and  practical  demonstration  of  the  unsurpassable  efficacy  of  the 
simple,  true,  pure  Homoeopathic  practice  upon  the  sick,  before 
the  eyes  of  the  whole  world,  now  the  matter  becomes  infinitely 
more  serious.  Hence  I  consider  it  my  duty  to  raise  my  voice 
aloud,  lest  these  scandalous  abuses  should  impart  in  this 
prospective  college  and  hospital  a  disreputable  character  to  the 
system. 

"Hence  I  most  solemnly  protest  against  the  employment  of  such 
a  reprobate  bastard  Homoeopathist,  whether  as  a  teacher  or  a 
medical  attendant. 

"Let  no  one  of  this  description  enter  upon  the  sacred  offices  of 
our  divine  art  in  this  hospital ;  no  one  of  this  description. 

,, Should  any  false  doctrines  be  taught  under  the  honorable 
name  of  Homoeopathy,  or  should  the  patients  be  treated  other- 
wise than  purely  Homoeopathically  with  any  imitation  of  Allo- 
pathic practices,  I  solemnly  declare  to  you  that  I  will  raise  my 
voice  to  its  utmost,  and  will,  by  means  of  the  public  press,  warn 
a  world  already  weary  of  deceit  against  such  treachery  and 
shameful  degeneracy  which  deserves  to  be  branded  and 
avoided. 


302  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

"To-day  my  paternal  voice  sounds  through  this  journal  within 
the  precincts  of  Leipsic,  hoping  for  your  improvement.* 

"Samuel  Hahnemann." 
'' CoetheUy  Oct.  2j,  18^2.'' 

Of  course  this  very  severe  letter  was  the  cause  of  much  ill  feel- 
ing in  the  Homoeopathic  ranks. 

Hahnemann  next  withdrew  the  use  of  his  name  from  the- 
diploma  issued  to  members  by  the  Central  Homceopathic Society. 
It  should  be  remembered  that  Hahnemann,  at  the  meeting  of 
1829,  had  been  designated  as  its  perpetual  president,  his  signa- 
ture being  lithographed  with  the  other  permanent  parts  of  the 
diploma. 


CHAPTER  LVIII. 

discussion   in    the    bAILY    PAPERS — INTOLERANCE    OF    HAHNE- 
MANN— LETTER  FROM  HAHNEMANN  TO  HERING. 
HAHNEMANN   TO   STAPF. 

On  the  4th  of  November,    1832,  Hahnemann  wrote  to  one  Dr, 

N as  follows  :  "After  fresh  and  numerous  proofs  of  how  many 

persons  have  announced  themselves  a.s  Homoeopaths,  who  in 
reality  are  mere  sciolists,  and  intermix  Allopathic  nonsense  of 
every  kind  with  their  practice,  thus  grossly  calumniating  that 
noble  art;  after  mature  consideration  I  resolved  no  longer  to  lend 
the  sanction  of  my  name,  though  merely  lithographed,  for  the 
purpose  of  legitimatizing  any  Homoeopathic  pretender,  with 
whose  scientific  attainments  and  qualifications  for  Homoeopathic 
practice  I  am  not  perfectly  acquainted.  I  therefore,  with  all  form 
and  solemnity,  withdrew  my  name." 

The  society  responded  in  the  7«^t'(^/a// of  Nov.  13,  1S32,  thus: 
"  He,  Hahnemann,  could  withdraw  his  name  if  he  were  prepared 
to  pay  the  expenses  of  paper,  printing,  &c.,  of  the  diplomas  on 
hand."t 

Th6  I,eipsic  Homoeopathic  Union  replied  to  this  "Letter  to  the 

*Mu)ler's  "  Geschichte  der  Homoopathie,"  p.  27.  Med.  Counsellor,  Vol. 
xi.,  p.  530.  Shipntaii's  N.  IV.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  iv.,  p.  281  Kleiuert's 
'*  Geschichte  der  Homoopathie." 

t  Fischer's  translation  of  "  Biographisches  Denkmal,'' p.  58. 


INTOLERANCE   OF   HAHNEMANN.  303 

Half-Homoeopathists  "  in  the  same  journal  for  November  8th  as 
follows :  "  The  Leipsic  lyocal  Union  of  Homoeopathic  Physicians 
declares,  in  reference  to  an  article  contained  in  the  Leipsic  Daily 
/o?irna/  of 'November  3d.  that  it  recognizes  no  absolute  authority 
in  science.  However  much  all  the  members  of  the  lyocal  Union 
prize  Homoeopathy,  yet  this  must  ever  remain  without  dispute, 
that  every  scientific  physician  must  in  the  practice  of  the  healing 
art  be  guided  entirely  by  his  own  convictions. 

"  Science,  as  the  offspring  of  untrammelled  reason,  can  never 
be  established  by  anathemas  ! 

"  Leipsic,  November  5tb,  1832,  Der  Leipz.,  Local  Verein 
Homoop.  Aerzte." 

Muller  continues  in  a  note:  "The  individual  signatures 
were  not  printed;  they  were  Franz,  Hornburg,  Haubold,  Hart- 
mann,  Lux,  Guttmann,  Drescher,  Apelt,  Langhammer,  Wahle, 
and  myself.  If,  as  I  am  not  now  sure,  Hartlaub,  Jr.,  failed  to 
sign,  it  escaped  attention.  Schubert  had  never  taken  part  in  our 
Local  Society,  the  majority  of  whom,  although  without  proof,  sus- 
pected him  of  having  influenced  Hahnemann's  course.  He 
maintained  in  the  daily  papers  a  war  of  words  against  the  society, 
and  withdrew  from  the  Board  of  Directors  prior  to  November  10." 

There  can  be  no  doubt  from  the  statements  published  then  and 
later  by  the  actors  in  this  matter  that  Hahnemann  really  did  in- 
jure the  welfare  of  the  hospital  before  it  was  opened.  That 
his  object  was  to  preserve  at  all  hazards  the  tenets  of  the  Homoeo- 
pathic law  as  he  himself  interpreted  it  seems  certain.  The  very  fact 
of  his  persecutions  throughout  the  long  years  of  his  life  no  doubt 
rendered  him  more  bitter  at  this  time.  This  spirit  ol  intolerance 
grew  upon  him  as  he  grew  older.  It  was  but  the  natural  result 
of  the  opposition  he  had  encountered. 

A  writer  in  the  British  Journal  of  Homoeopathy  says:*  "That 
Hahnemann  became  in  latter  years  bitter,  sarcastic,  intolerant, 
and  dogmatic  is  true,  but  that  at  first  he  was  just  the  opposite 
of  all  this,  modest,  conciliating,  diffident,  is  equally  true.  The 
treatment  of  his  colleagues  brought  all  this  about. 

"We  shall  then  (remembering  the  years  of  persecution)  cease 
to  marvel  at  Hahnemann's  bitterness,  and  shall  then  understand 
how  it  was  that  he  insisted  on  his  disciples  renouncing  all  con- 
nections with  that  school  of  traditional  medicine,  whose  profess- 

*Brit.  lour.  Hotn,  Vol.  xvii.,  p.  116. 


304  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

ors  had  treated  him  as  a  pariah  and  trampled  him  under  their 
feet." 

Besides,  here  for  the  first  time  an  Institution  was  to  be  opened 
for  a  public  demonstration  of  the  truths  of  Homceopathy,  and  it  is 
natural  that  Hahnemann,  with  the  eyes  of  all  Europe  looking 
to  see  the  result,  should  wish  that  nothing  but  the  most  perfect 
adaptation  of  his  own  careful  methods  should  be  allowed  within 
its  walls. 

Albrecht  says  of  this  characteristic:  "His  intolerance  for 
those  who  differed  from  him  latterly  attained  to  such  a  height 
that  he  used  to  say,  '  He  who  does  not  walk  on  exactly  the  same 
line  with  me,  who  diverges,  if  it  be  but  the  breadth  of  a  straw, 
to  the  right  or  to  the  left,  is  an  apostate  and  a  traitor,  and  with 
him  I  will  have  nothing  to  do.'  " 

"  Dr.  Gross,  who  was  one  of  his  most  industrious  disciples  and 
enjoying  his  most  perfect  intimacy,  having  lost  a  child,  wrote  in 
the  sorrow  of  a  bereaved  parent  to  Hahnemann, and  said  that  his 
loss  had  taught  him  that  Homceopathy  did  not  suffice  in  every 
case  ;  this  gave  great  offense  to  Hahnemann  who  never  forgave 
Gross  for  this  remark  and  never  restored  him  to  his  favor."  * 

In  a  letter  to  Stapf,  written  in  1829,  he  speaks  in  very  severe 
terms  of  Trinks  and  Hartlaub,  saying  if  "Their  conduct,  I 
plainly  perceive,  since  it  affects  me  also,  is  egotistical,  arrogant, 
offensive,  ungrateful,  deceitful,  and  is  calculated  to  vex  us." 

Dudgeon  says  he  can  find  no  reason  for  this  bitterness  on  the 
part  of  Hahnemann. 

In  a  letter  written  in  1833  to  Dr.  Constantine  Hering,  Hahne- 
mann throws  some  light  upon  his  side  of  the  hospital  question.  J 

"To  Dr.  Hering,  President  of  the  Hahnemannian  Society  of 
Philadelphia: 

''Dear  Good  Hering: 

"Good  luck  to  you,  in  the  land  of  liberty  where  you  can  do 
all  that  is  good  without  let  or  hindrance!  There  you  are  in  your 
element!  I  have  no  design  to  stimulate  you  on  behalf  of  our 
beneficent  art;  that  would  be  pouring  oil  on  the  fire.  You 
should  rather  be  restrained  so  that  you  may  not  injure  yourself, 

*Duclgeon's  Biography  of  Hahnemann. 
\Honi.  World,  Vol.  xxiv.,  p.  502. 

\Hovi.  World,  Vol.  xxv.,  p.  505.  Annals  Brit.  Horn.  Society,  1S64.  Vol. 
iii.,  p.  162. 


» 


INTOLERANCE    OF    HAHNEMANN.  305 

and  yon  should  take  great  care  of  your  health,  which  is  precious 
to  all  true  friends  of  Homoeopathy.  When  you  see  Kopp's  book 
and  the  Allgemeine  Jioinoopathische  Zeitung  it  will  pain  you  to 
read  with  what  insolent  dogmatism  they  have  begun  to  vaunt  a 
mixture  of  Allopathic  bed  practice  with  a  superficial  sort  of 
Homoeopathy  as  something  vastly  superior  to  pure  Homoeopathy, 
and  to  denounce  this  as  imperfect  and  insufficient  for  curing 
■disease. 

"In  Leipsic,  Moritz  MuUer  was  the  head  of  this  sect, and  almost 
all  the  members  of  the  Homoeopathic  Society  there  (which  strove 
to  constitute  itself  the  Central  Society  over  all  German  societies) 
took  part  in  this  deviation. 

"On  two  successive  years  I  warned  them  privately  in  a  fatherly 
but  energetic  manner,  but  they  would  still  carry  on  their  disorderly 
practices;  and  they  would  have  conducted  their  proposed  Hom- 
oeopathic hospital  in  this  abominable  manner  had  I  not  de- 
nounced them  in  the  Leipziger  Tageblatt  oi  the  3d  of  November. 
Then  they  cried  out  that  I  wished  to  interfere  with  their  honest 
work,  and  that  I  was  wrong  to  fear  that  they  would  practice 
otherwise  than  purely  Homoeopathically  in  the  hospital,  that  it 
was  self-evident  that  they  would  only  act  quite  faithfully  there. 

"But  you  need  only  read  M.  Muller's  declaration  in  Archiv 
xiii,  part  i,  p.  104  (which  Stapf  ought  not  to  have  allowed  to 
appear  without  a  note  refuting  his  statements),  and  also  what 
appeared  in  the  Jahrbiicher  der  Honioopathisdien  Heil-und  Lehr- 
■anstalt,  1833,  pp.  19  and  25,  in  order  to  perceive  distinctly  that 
it  was  confessedly  M.Muller'splan  to  practice  Allopathic  ally  there 
which  would  certainly  have  been  a  public  scandal  and  would 
have  thrown  suspicion  and  been  an  outrage  on  our  art  had  I  not 
launched  my  thunderbolt  at  them  on  the  3d  of  November. 

"Then  came  forward  in  their  defense  a  certain  Dr.  Kretschmar, 
whom  I  soon  settled.  He  was  followed  by  M.  Muller  and  Rummel, 
who  impudently  and  publicly  contended  that,  according  to  their 
experience,  venesection,  leeches,  &c.,  were  absolutely  necessary 
in  order  to  effect  cures.  I  might  have  answered  (but  I  did  not)  that 
their  want  of  Homoeopathic  knowledge  could  not  be  the  measure 
whereby  the  power  of  pure  Homoeopathy  could  be  judged;  seeing 
that  they  left  uncured,  or  sent  to  their  graves,  many  whom  true 
Homoeopathy  could  have  cured. 

"The  whole  of  the  Teipsic  Society   sided   with   Muller   and 


306  LIFE   OF   HAHNEMANN. 

threatened  me  with  open  enmity.  But  I  suffered  them  to  parade 
their  false  doctrines,  which  they  call  eclecticism,  in  the  Allgem. 
horn,  Zeittmg,  whereby  they  create  a  public  scandal  and  incur 
the  contempt  of  my  true  disciples.  That  was  enough  for  me.  How- 
ever, in  the  fifth  edition  of  the  '  Organon  '  I  have  characterized 
their  conduct  as  it  deserved.  But  this  scandal  has  caused  me 
a  great  deal  of  vexation.  On  the  loth  of  August  I  had  with  me 
here  upwards  of  twenty  of  my  best  disciples  from  all  parts  (our 
Boenninghausen  was  among  the  number),  and  all  agreed  that 
the  true  Homoeopathist,  besides  administering  a  single  Homoeo- 
pathic medicine  carefully  selected  for  the  accurately  ascertained 
morbid  state,  should  eschew  all  palliatives  and  all  that  might 
weaken  the  patient,  all  stimulation  by  so  called  tonics,  and  all 
external  painful  applications.  May  God  strengthen  them  in  their 
beneficent  labors. 

"  I  beg  for  your  continued  friendship  and  love. 
"  Yours  truly, 

"Sam.  Hahnemann." 
^^Coethen,  Sept.  ij,  i8jj.'^ 

Vol.  I  of  the  Allg.  horn.  Zeitung  contains  this  controversy. 
Kretschmar  wrote  an  article  in  answer  to  Hahnemann's  "  Half- 
Homoeopathist"  epistle.  Rummel,  Muller  and  Trinks  also  took 
his  side.  Hahnemann  wrote  another  letter  and  insisted  that  it 
be  published  without  a  word  of  change  in  the  Zeitung.  It  ap- 
peared in  Vol.  ii.,  No.  i. 

He  said  :  *  "The  pure  science  of  Homoeopath}^  is  entirely 
lost,  if  essays  of  the  character  of  Dr.  Kretschmar's,  in  number 
22  of  the  Allg.  hovi.  Zeitung,  are  admitted.  The  pernicious 
error  of  treating  Homoeopathic  patients  by  Allopathic  means 
are  there  clearly  taught.  No  true  Homoeopath  can  peruse  a 
paper  contaminated  by  such  flagrant  errors.  I  consider  it 
ominous  that  Kretschmar's  essay  has  been  admitted  into  the 
Journal  by  the  editors.  It  is  an  indication  that  those  gentlemen 
secretly  countenance  the  errors  it  contains." 

Dr.  Kretschmar  favored  a  union  of  the  Allopathic  and  Homoeo- 
pathic Schools  which  Hahnemann,  of  course,  opposed. 

In  a  letter  to  Stapf,  dated  May  19,  1832,  Hahnemann  gives  a 
rather  emphatic  opinion  of  the  conduct  of  the  Zeitung,  as  fol- 

*  Fischer,  Trans.      "  Biographisches  Deukuia!,"  p.  59. 


INTOLERANCE    OF    HAHNEMANN.  307 

lows  :  *  "  What  you  tell  me  about  the  Allgenieine  honioopathische 
Zeitung  surprises  me,  as  no  one  has  written  to  me  one  word 
upon  the  subject.  So  Hartmann  is  to  be  one  of  the  editors!  Is 
Saul  also  among  the  prophets? 

"How  can  we  trust  such  a  weak-kneed  fellow  who  would 
like  to  Allopathize  us,  and  would  teach  the  laity  to  treat  mere 
names  of  diseases.  Our  art  requires  much  too  minute  accuracy 
in  its  practice  for  such  as  him;  he  would  greatly  prefer  to  cure 
(or  rather  kill)  all  his  patients  with  mercury  ;  he  behaves  like 
a  sham  Homoeopathic  quack,  and  engrafts  on  our  art  the  infamy 
of  populaiization — this  fellow,  who  is  more  hurtful  to  us  than 
all  our  enemies,  is  to  be  one  of  the  editors — the  mouthing  brag- 
gart !  What  do  I  live  to  see?  Let  every  honorable  man  with- 
draw from  association  with  this  presumptuous  babbler. 

"  If  you  continue  to  be  a  strict  editor  of  the  Archiv,  and  frojjt 
this  time  forth  print  nothing  wrong  in  it,  you  will  maintain  your 
periodical  in  honor;  Videatur  my  Hints  and  IVarnings,  which 
I  beg  you  to  print  exactly  as  written." 

Dudgeon,  who  translated  this  letter,  says  in  a  note:  "Appar- 
ently boycotting  is  not  altogether  such  a  modern  invention  as 
we  are  accustomed  to  think  it.  Hahnemann's  remonstrance 
was  ineffectual,  however,  and  Hartmann  did  better  than  was  ex- 
pected, and  lived  and  died  highly  respected  by  all  his  Homoeo- 
pathic colleagues.  I  can  find  no  trace  of  these  Hints  and  War?i- 
ings  in  the  Archiv,  they  were  probably  too  strong  even  for  the 
faithful  Stapf." 

Puhlman  says :  f  "The  protest  of  Hahnemann  had  fallen 
into  fertile  soil  with  many  of  his  followers,  and  although  they 
could  not  find  any  fault  with  the  management  of  Muller,  which 
was  strictly  according  to  the  rules  of  Homoeopathy,  they  suspected 
Hartmann,  who  had  written  a  Homoeopathic  Therapeutics,  and 
by  means  of  which  he  had  incurred  Hahnemann's  disapprobation. 
They  desired  that  Hornburg,  one  of  Hahnemann's  oldest  pupils, 
who  had  not  yet  graduated,  should  be  appointed  in  place  of 
Hartmann.  This  Muller  refused  to  do.  The  result  was  that 
Hahnemann  repeatedly  declared  in  the  Leipsic  paper  (the 
Zeitu7ig~)  that  he  took  no  interest  in  the  Institution  under  such 
impure  management,  and  two  parties  were  formed,  one  support- 
ing Muller,  the  other  Hahnemann." 

*  Horn.  World,  Vol.  xxv.,  p.  504. 

t'.'Trans.  World's  Horn.  Convention,"  Vol.  ii.,  p.  24. 


3o8  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

The  numbers  of  the  Zeitung  of  that  date  are  filled  with  the 
letters  arising  from  this  controversy.  Muller  afterwards  wrote 
a  pamphlet  in  which  he  gave  a  history  of  the  whole  matter. 


CHAPTER  LIX. 

PURCHASE  OF  THE  HOSPITAL — THE   OPENING — INSTALLATION  OF 
DR.  SCHWEIKERT — HAHNEMANN'S  LETTER — FICKEL. 

In  the  meantime,  immediately  after  the  meeting  of  the  loth 
of  August,  1832,  the  directors  endeavored  to  find  suitable 
premises  for  the  hospital,  but  no  rentable  building  adapted  to 
the  purpose  could  be  obtained.  Later  on  a  house  was  found 
in  one  of  the  healthiest  parts  of  the  city,  the  so  called  Peter's 
Portion  near  the  outermost  Sandgate;  No.  i,  Glockenstrasse.* 
The  owner,  who  had  just  built  it,  had  planned  it  for  eleven 
small  families.  This  house  was  purchased  for  3525  thalers, 
which  in  the  opinion  of  experts  was  cheap,  since  the  seller  obli- 
gated himself  to  make  at  his  own  expense,  within  six  weeks 
(which  he  did),  the  alterations  required  to  fit  it  for  a  hospital. 
In  these  alterations  every  two  rooms  were  changed  into  one, 
and  a  larger  kitchen  and  laundry  made.  Two  thousand  thalers 
were  also  allowed  to  remain  on  mortgage  at  four  per  cent,  inter- 
est, the  balance  was  to  be  paid  on  New  Year's,  1833. 

This  house  had  a  free  exposure  on  three  sides;  on  the  east  it 
was  built  up  to  the  next  house,  but  on  the  south  it  formed  the 
front  of  the  street,  on  the  west  it  was  contiguous  to  a  large  gar- 
den and  on  the  north  was  bordered  by  little  gardens  belonging 
to  its  grounds.  The  street  was  quite  wide,  and  beyond  the  hos- 
pital, extending  obliquely,  was  a  large  open  space  around  which, 
near  the  outer  gate,  there  had  been  recently  laid  out  a  multitude 
of  cheerful  gardens.  The  garden  attached  to  the  house  con- 
tained some  fruit  trees,  but  for  the  most  part  was  laid  out  in 
beautiful  walks  and  parterres  so  that  the  convalescent  patients 
enjoyed  their  exercise  amidst  beautiful  surroundings.  A  wall 
covered  with  grapevines  separated  this  garden  from  the  public 
gardens.     The  house  was  of  three  stories,  and  had  a  capacity  for 

*  "  Jahrbucher  der  Homoopathischeu  Heil-und  Lehranstalt  in  Leipzig." 
Erstes  Heft.     1833.     pp.  2,  197,  201. 


PURCHASE    OF   THE    HOSPITAI.,  309 

twenty-four  beds,  twelve  for  men  and  twelve  for  women.  On  the 
ground  lioor  there  was  a  wide  door  in  the  middle  with  a  room 
on  either  side,  where  the  pharmacy,  library  and  other  offices 
were  situated. 

This  Institution  was  formally  opened  with  appropriate  cere- 
monies, on  January  22,  1833.  Dr.  Moritz  MuUer  was  installed 
as  director,  or  chief,  without  any  salary;  Drs.  Franz  Hartmann 
and  Haubold,  assistants;  Dr.  E.  Seidel  was  surgeon. 

The  name  under  which  it  was  known  was:  "Homoopathischen 
Heil-undLehranstalt  zu  Leipzig."  During  the  first  year  it  re- 
ceived only  the  poor  gratuitousl}'-.  Dr.  Muller  remained  in 
charge  the  first  half-year  and  delivered  lectures  upon  Homoeopa- 
thy which  were  published  in  the  Allgemeine  Zeitiing. 

A  very  complete  account  of  this  opening  maj^  be  found  in 
Stapf's  y4r<:/zzz' in  an  article  entitled:     "Opening  of  the  Clinicum 

HOMOOPATHICUM."* 

Rapou  says:  "I  assisted  with  ray  father  at  the  opening  of  this 
hospital  in  January,  1833.  Drs.  Muller,  Hartmann  and  Haubold 
were  the  officers,  the  first,  physician  in  chief,  the  two  others 
assistants.  A  daily  dispensary  was  annexed  to  the  clinic,  and 
all  the  Homceopaths  of  I,eipsic  united  in  giving  time  and  labor 
to  this  undertaking.  This  zeal  promised  very  brilliant  results, 
and  all  the  brothers  of  our  cause  in  Germany  awaited  the  out- 
come of  the  experiment,  "t 

Three  months  after  the  opening  of  the  hospital  a  pamphlet  of 
200  pages  was  published  bearing  the  title:  "Jahrbucher  der 
Homoopathischen  Heilund  Lehranstalt  zu  Leipzig.  Herausge- 
geben    von  den  Inspectoren    derselben.       Leipzig.     Schumann. 

1833-" 

The  preface  is  signed  by  Drs.  Muller,  Hartmann,  Haubold, 
Inspectors.  It  contains  a  history  of  the  hospital  from  the  meeting 
of  1829,  an  account  of  the  opening,  a  report  of  the  work  and 
plans  and  descriptions  of  the  building.  A  second  part  was  issued 
on  June  30  of  the  same  year,  the  third  part  appeared  September 
30th  signed  by  Moritz  Muller;  these  were  issued  in  one  volume. 

A  year  book  of  the  hospital  was  also  published  in  1840  by  Dr. 
Seidel,  the  physician  then  in  charge. 

In  the  Allgemeine  horn.  Zeitung  for  1833  may  be  found  notices 

^Archivfur  die  horn.  Heilkunst,  Vol.  xii.,  pt.  3,  p.  167.  J 

f'Histoire  de  la  Doctrine  Medicale  Homeopathique. "  Vol.  ii.,  p.  144. 


3 TO  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

of  the  coming  meeting  of  the  Central  Union  on  August  loth, 
called  at  Leipsic. 

Hahnemann  had  in  the  meantime  sent  out  notices  in  Ma}-  of 
the  same  year  calling  on  physicians  not  to  meet  at  lyeipsic,  but 
at  Coethen. 

On  August  loth  meetings  were  held  at  both  places.  The  fol- 
lowers of  Hahnemann  assembled  at  Coethen,  while  a  few,  having 
entreated  Dr.  MuUer  to  preside,  met  at  Leipsic,  according  to 
the  original  intention  and  appointment. 

The  members  of  the  Leipsic  meeting,  regretting  the  differences 
of  opinion  and  rupture,  sent  a  deputation  to  Hahnemann  at  Coe- 
then in  order  to  show  respect  to  him,  and  to  make  peace  if  possi- 
ble. *  He  refused  all  overtures  until  they  had  consented  to  sub- 
scribe to  certain  maxims  propounded  by  himself,  and  called  by 
him  the  fundamental  doctrines  of  Homoeopathy,  f  A  truce  was 
however  declared. 

The  more' liberal  of  the  physicians  retired  from  the  direction 
of  the  Central  Society  and  of  the  hospital,  and  Hahnemann  now 
had  matters  entirely  his  own  way.  He  assumed  entire  control 
of  the  hospital. 

In  order  to  end  the  quarrel.  Dr.  Muller  resigned  on  Novem- 
ber I,  1833,  and  Dr.  Benjamin  Schweikert,  Sr.,  was  installed  as 
director,  with  a  salary  of  400  thalers.  X 

On  November  9,  1833,  the  following  article  appeared  in 
Schweikert' s  own  journal :  || 

"installation  of  dr.  schweikert  as  director  of  the 

LEIPSIC  HOMCEOPATHIC  INSTITUTE  AND  HOSPITAL." 
"Since  Dr.  Moritz  Muller  has  resigned  from  the  directorship 
of  the  Homoeopathic  Hospital  in  Leipsic,  to  whom,  as  well  as  to 
Drs.  Haubold  and  Hartmann,  public  thanks  are  hereby  duly 
tendered  for  the  troublesome  erection  and  first  management  of 
so  highly  important  an  Institution,  I,  Samuel  Hahnemann,  so 
long  as  I  remain  the  overseer  and  counsellor  for  the  advance- 
ment of  Homoeopathy  in  general,  and  of  our  purely  Homoeo- 
pathic Public  Hospital  in  particular,  shall  be  delighted  that  Dr. 
Schweikert,  distinguished  both  by  his  pen  and  his  practice  as  a 

*Stapf's  Archiv,  Vol.  xiii ,  part  3,  p.  134. 
tMuUer's  "Geschichte  der  Homoopathie." 
JStapf's  Archiv,  Vol.  xiv.,  part  i,  p.  131. 
II  Zeit.  der  horn.  Heilkunst,  Vol.  vii.,  p.  297. 


INSTALI.ATION    OF    DR.    SCHWEIKERT.  31I 

true  and  renowned  Homceopathist,  has  concluded  at  the  sacrifice 
of  man}'  of  his  former  benevolent  enterprises,  out  of  pure  love 
for  our  healing,  and  out  of  zeal  for  the  welfare  of  mankind,  to 
settle  in  Leipsic  and  assume  henceforth  the  management  and 
direction  of  this  Homoeopathic  Institute  and  Hospital. 

"And  to  lend  my  approval  thereof  in  a  distinguished  manner 
publicl}^  on  that  da)^  I  have  requested  my  friend  and  colleague, 
Dr.  Gottfried  I,ehmann,  to  go  to  Leipsic,  so  that  he,  as  my  repre- 
sentative, may  convey  my  best  wishes  to  Dr.  Schweikert  and 
may  install  him  solemnl}''  in  this  Institute,  in  order  that  he  may 
appear  as  the  director  of  said  Institute,  and  as  the  physician 
and  teacher  of  the  Homoeopathic  healing  art  for  the  welfare  of 
mankind.     And  may  God  grant  him  good  health  ! 

"At  the  same  time  I  call  upon  all  friends  and  admirers  of 
Homoeopathy  far  and  near,  especially  those  who  are  already  in- 
debted to  this  healing  art  for  their  deliverance  from  disease  and ' 
restoration  to  health,  as  well  as  all  those  genuine  Homoeopathic 
physicians  hereby  solicited,  to  send  in  a  yearly  contribution  for 
the  support  of  this  thus  promising  hospital  to  the  treasurer  of 
the  same  TDr.  E.  G.  Franz,  in  Leipsic),  since  the  State  does 
not  assume  its  support,  so  that  this  Institute  representing  to 
the  eyes  and  ears  of  the  whole  world  the  superior  merits  of 
Homoeopathy,  already  supported  by  the  contributions  of  benevo- 
lent citizens,  may  steadily  rise,  grow  and  flourish.  I  myself,  so 
near  the  end  of  my  career,  can  at  the  present  time  lay  upon  the 
altar  of  humanity  a  contribution  of  only  twenty  louis  d'or  for 
the  Institute. 

Samuki.  Hahnemann." 

''Coethe7i,  October 31,  i8jj.'' 

This  letter  from  the  master  is  followed  in  the  Journal  hy  the 
following  comments :  ' '  This  wish  of  the  noble  founder  of  Homoe- 
opathy was  solemnly  performed  by  the  deputed  Dr.  Lehmann. 
On  the  first  of  November,  1833,  at  10  o'clock  a.  m.,  in  the 
presence  of  Homoeopathic  physicians  and  a  few  other  friends  of 
Homoeopathy,  this  person  installed  Dr.  Schweikert  as  the  new 
director  of  the  Homoeopathic  Hospital,  publicly  read  the  above 
mentioned  letter  of  Dr.  Hahnemann  in  the  conference  room  of 
the  same,  and  Dr.  Schweikert  feelingly  and  gladlj^  extended  his 
hand  as  a  promise  to  care  for  the  welfare  of  the  hospital  with  all 
his  ability  according  to  the  true  meaning  of  the  great  Hahne- 
mann. 


312  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

"Therefore  there  v^vas  held  the  first  clinical  talk  by  the  new 
director  as  well  as  the  treatment  of  patients  in  the  general  clinic. 
With  the  best  wishes  for  the  future  prosperity  of  this  important 
Institution  and  with  the  most  hopeful  expectations,  to  which  on 
the  one  hand  the  lively  interest  which  Dr.  Hahnemann  him- 
self now  takes  in  the  welfare  of  the  Institute,  and  on  the  other 
the  good  will  and  sacrifices  of  Dr.  Schweikert  entitle  it,  the 
assemblage   dispersed." 

But  the  fact  that  a  salary  was  attached  to  the  directorship 
caused  further  trouble.  One  Dr.  Fickel,  incited  by  this  salary  and 
wishing  to  obtain  the  position  of  director  at  the  hospital,  pub- 
lished a  small  book  containing  fictitious  symptoms  of  certain 
medicines  and  cures  made  with  them  according  to  the  Homoe- 
opathic method.  He  succeeded  in  ingratiating  himself  with  the 
hospital  authorities  and  was  appointed  director.  Dr.  Noack 
"soon  after  exposed  the  worthlessness  and  fraud  of  these  pretended 
physiological  provings,  and  he  was  removed  from  his  position. 
He  now,  in  revenge,  wrote  a  book  entitled:  "Direct  Proof  of 
the  Nullity  of  Homoeopathy." 

Dudgeon  says:  "This  respectable  individual  is  great  author- 
ity with  the  Allopathic  writers  again.st  Homoeopathy  in  this 
country  (England).  His  career  is  too  well  known  in  Germany 
to  allow  him  to  be  used  there  with  equal  effect."*  The  last 
information  Dudgeon  had  of  this  pseudo- Homoeopath,  was  that 
he  was  imprisoned  for  swindling. 

Dr.  William  Henderson  says  of  this  Dr.  Fickel:  "He  was 
convicted  of  gross  deceit  during  his  professed  attachment  to 
Homoeopathy,  and  to  revenge  himself  on  his  Homoeopathic 
castigators,  he  published  a  book,  '  Die  Nichtigkeit  der  Homoo- 
pathie.'     He  was  not  long  afterwards  in  jail  for  swindling." 

Fickel  had,  however,  been  for  some  time  engaged  in  fabricat- 
ing pathogeneses  of  drugs,  and  had,  under  various  pseudonyms, 
published  several  books. f 

When  the  hospital  was  started  a  subsidy  from  the  Govern- 
ment had  been  asked;  this  however,  had  never  been  granted, 
and  the  Institution  was  entirely  maintained  by  private  contri- 

*  Dudgeon's  Life  of  Hahnemann.     Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  xxx.,  p.  467. 

t  See  Rapou's  "  Histoire  de  la  Doctrine  Medicale  Homceopathique." 
Vol.  ii.,  p.  150.  It  is  the  intention  of  the  compiler  of  this  book  to  publish 
in  the  future  in  connection  with  a  History  of  the  First  Provers,  a  more 
complete  account  of  this  rascal. 


II.LNESS    OF   HAHNEMANN.  313 

butions.     The  particular  transactions  to  which  it  had   been  ex- 
posed made  the  citizens  of  Leipsic  chary  of  giving  it  support. 


CHAPTER  LX. 

ILLNESS   OF   HAHNEMANN — CELEBRATION   OF    1 833 — LETTER    TO 
STRAUBE — AMERICAN    DIPLOMA. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  the  Hahnemann  who  was  at  that 
time  leading  such  a  busy  and  honored  life  was  nearly  seventy- 
eight  years  of  age,  when  most  men  are  in  their  slippered  dotage. 
But  his  mind  was  as  strong  as  in  the  days  of  his  storm-swept 
past,  and  with  the  exception  of  occasional  attacks  of  bronchial 
catarrh,  he  seems  to  have  enjoyed  splendid  health.  For  some 
years  he  had  been  a  suflerer  from  this  catarrh,  which  seems  to 
have  been  asthmatic,  and  which  was  eventually  the  cause  of  his 
death. 

About  this  time  he  had  an  attack,  of  which  he  thus  writes  in  a 
letter  to  Boenninghausen,  dated  April  28,  1833:*   "I  kept  myself 

very  calm,  yet  the  annoyance  I  received  from  X may  have 

contributed  to  bring  upon  me  the  suffocative  catarrh  that  for 
seven  days  before  and  fourteen  days  after  the  loth  of  April 
(birthday)  threatened  to  choke  me  with  instantaneous  attacks  of 
intolerable  itching  in  the  glottis  that  would  have  caused  spas- 
modic cough  had  it  not  deprived  me  of  breath  altogether;  irrita- 
tion of  the  fauces  with  the  finger,  so  as  to  cause  sickness,  was 
the  only  thing  that  restored  the  breathing,  and  that  but  slowly; 
there  were,  besides  other  severe  symptoms,  very  great  shortness 
of  breath,  without  constriction  of  the  chest,  total  loss  of  appetite 
for  food  and  drink,  disgust  at  tobacco,  bruised  feeling  and  weari- 
ness of  all  the  limbs,  constant  drowsiness,  inability  to  do  the 
least  work,  presentiment  of  death,  etc.  The  whole  neighbor- 
hood proved  their  great  affection  for  me  by  sending  so  frequently 
to  enquire  how  I  was  that  I  felt  quite  ashamed.  It  is  only 
within  these  four  days  that  I  have  felt  myself  out  of  danger;  I 
obtained  relief  by  two  olfactions  of  Coffea  cr.  x,  first,  and  then  of 
Calcarea;  Ambra  too  was  of  use.  And  so  the  great  Protector  of  all 

*  Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  vii.,  p.  498.  "Lesser  Writings  of  Hahnemann," 
New  York,  1852,  p.  776. 


314  LIFE   OF    HAHNEMANN. 

that  is  true  and  good  will  grant  me  as  much  more  life  upon  this 
earth  as  seemeth  good  to  His  wisdom." 

Every  anniversary  after  1829  was  distinguished  by  some  mark 
of  appreciation  on  the  part  of  the  disciples  and  friends  of  Hahne- 
mann. On  August  10,  1833,  he  received  a  cup  with  this  in- 
scription: "To  Dr.  Samuel  Hahnemann  at  Coethen,  a  gift  of 
friendship  from  his  devoted  admirer,  Dr.  Friedrich  Gauwerky, 
of  Soest  in  Westphalia,  August  10,  1833."  It  also  had  the  fol- 
lowing Greek  inscription :   '^Askleipioi  Archegetei.''^ 

There  was  a  very  important  celebration  of  this  day  at  Coethen 
by  the  Society  of  Homoeopathic  Physicians.  Albrecht,  the 
author  of  "  Biographisches  Denkmal,"  says:  "Strangers  from 
far  and  near  had  assembled  for  that  purpose  at  the  hotel  at 
Coethen,  and  Hahnemann  received  in  due  form  a  deputation 
which  had  been  appointed  to  fetch  him  in  a  carriage.  He  en- 
joyed a  hearty  welcome.  The  chairman,  Dr.  Schweikert,  director 
of  the  Homoeopathic  Hospital  at  Leipsic,  commenced  the  discus- 
sion. The  great  physician  greeted  the  assembled  company  in 
the  most  cordial  and  inviting  manner,  and  solicited  all  present  to 
contribute  information  respecting  the  progress  of  Homoeopathy. 
The  reports  read  on  this  occasion  formed  the  subject  of  an  in- 
tensely interesting  and  learned  discussion. 

"In  the  banquet  room,  which  was  adorned  with  the  bust  of 
Hahnemann,  the  company  joined  several  friends  of  the  new  sys- 
tem from  Coethen  at  a  cheerful  dinner.  After  the  toast,  pro- 
posed by  the  chairman,  to  his  highness,  the  Duke  of  Coethen, 
and  responded  to  enthusiastically,  three  songs,  adapted  to  the 
occasion, were  sung  and  received  with  great  applause,  reminding 
the  guests  of  their  happy  academical  career. 

"On  the  iith  of  August  the  scientific  discussions  were 
resumed.  The  great  master  delivered  several  admirable 
speeches,  glowing  and  eloquent,  and  astonished  all  who  heard 
him.  The  strangers  who  still  remained,  and  several  friends 
from  Coethen,  were  invited  on  that  day  by  Hahnemann  to  a 
splendid  banquet.  During  these  two  days  there  prevailed  the 
profoundest  feeling  of  sincere  love  and  regard  for  the  great  dis- 
coverer, and  the  deepest  conviction  was  manifested  by  all,  of  the 
high  character  of  the  new  system." 

It  was  during  a  speech  made  at  this  meeting  that  Hahne- 
mann publicly  "expressed  his  gratitude  to  the  Dukes  Ferdinand. 


LETTER   TO   STRAUBE.  315 

and  Henry  for  the  kind  reception,  protection  and  shelter  they 
had  afforded  to  him,  the  exile,  and  to  his  new  doctrine.  He 
expressed  his  particular  thanks  to  the  latter  for  inviting  Dr. 
lychmann,  his  first  pupil,  to  settle  at  Coethen."* 

Despite  the  occasional  illness  of  the  venerable  master,  he  still 
continued  his  interest  in  life.  He  was  devoted  to  the  welfare  of 
the  hospital,  he  continued  to  practice,  to  write  to  his  many 
friends  and  disciples,  and  to  interest  himself  in  his  scholarly 
home-lifs. 

The  following  letter  written  to  Mr.  Straube,  shows  us  that  the 
old  man  loved  his  faithful  daughters. 

This  letter  is  written  to  Mr.  Straube  the  father.  The  son, 
Adolph,  had  a  short  time  before  modelled  Hahnemann's  bust  in 
wax.  An  advertisement  appeared  in  the  AUgerneine  horn. 
Zeihing,  Vol.  ii.,  p.  40,  in  which  these  medallions  were  offered 
for  sale. 
''Dear  Mr.  Straube  : 

"  For  your  complaints  of  which  you  notified  me  January  21  I 
herewith  enclose  you  six  small  powders,  of  which  you  take  one 
every  week,  in  the  morning,  before  breakfast,  and  with  No.  i, 
3,  5  you  smell  once  with  both  nostrils  into  enclosed  quill,  with- 
out losing  the  small  ball  out  of  it. 

"I  have  an  old  letter  of  your  dear  son  in  m.y  possession; 
extraordinary  work  prevented  me  as  yet  from  answering  it, 
especially  as  his  health  condition  didn't  appear  urgent,  but  these 
several  months  his  health  condition  might  have  altered,  so  that 
my  directions  suited  to  those  older  ones  might  not  be  proper 
now.  Therefore  I  beg  of  you  with  my  best  greeting  to  induce 
him  to  write  how  he  is  now  feeling,  after  which  I  will  send  him 
whatever  may  be  serviceable.  Could  he  send  me  eight  more 
pieces  of  iron  casts  of  my  bas  reliefs  (my  likeness)  the  size  next 
to  the  smallest,  about  this  size.f 

"I   would  like  to  please  my  daughter  with  them.     Do  not 
forget  your  daily  necessary  walks,  and  remember  in  love, 
"  Your  obedient, 

' '  S.  Hahnemann.  ' ' 
"  Coethen,  2  Feb.,  1833 y 

During   this  same    eventful  year  of    1833   Hahnemann   was 

*  Fischer's  trans.  "  Biographisches  Denkmal,"  p.  125. 

t  Represented  in  the  letter  by  a  circle  the  size  of  a  twenty-five  cent  piece. 


3l6  LIFE   OF    HAHNEMANN. 

honored  by  a  diploma  from  an  Allopathic  society  in  far-off  North 
America. 

On  November,  1832,  on  the  recommendation  of  Dr.  John  F. 
Gray,  a  prominent  physician  of  New  York  city,  and  a  member 
of  the  Society,  the  "  Medical  Society  of  the  City  and  County  of 
New  York ' '  named  Hahnemann  an  honorary  member  of  their 
body,  and  presented  him  with  a  Latin  diploma.*  The  minutes 
of  the  society  show  that  at  a  regular  meeting  held  on  September 
10,  1832,  "S.  Hahnemann  was  nominated  by  Dr.  Gray  as  an 
honorary  member."  At  a  meeting  held  November  12,  1832, 
"Dr.  James  W.  Anderson,  of  the  Island  of  Cuba,  and  Samuel  F. 
Hahnemann,  M.  D.,  were  elected  honorary  members." 

Dr.  Gray,  in  a  letter  dated  April  6,  1833,  notified  Hahnemann 
of  the  honor,  and  with  it  sent  the  diploma,  of  which  the  follow- 
ing is  a  copy: 

"  SociETAS  Medica  CiviTATis  Novi   Eboraci  Atque   Comi- 
TATus,  Omnibus  Has  Literas  Perlecturis,  Salutem. 

"Virum  Probum  et  Ornatissimum  Samuelem  C.  F.  Hahne- 
mann, Auctorem  Homoeopathiae,  quem  fama  promit  scientiarum 
medicinse  et  chirurgise  cultorem,  liberalium  honoribus  artium 
provectum,  placuit  nobis  Prsesidi  caeterisqueSociishujusceComi- 
tatus  Concil.  Med.  Facultatis,  Socium  constituere  Honorarium; 
atque  auctoritatem  ei  donare  privilegia  et  immunitates  ad  nostras 
Medicae  Facultatissquse  pertinent,  ubique  terrarum  dextra  et 
honore  amplectendum. 

In  quorum  fidem  hae  literae  pro  Emerito  Socio 
Doctore  Hahnemann  manibus  sigiloque  Archi- 
atrum  munitae  lubentissimemandantur.  Medicis 
Aedibus  Novi  Eboraci,  Ao.  1833. 

"Daniel  L.  Peixotte,  M.  D., 

Presses. 
"Francis  N.  Walsh,  M.  D.,  Scriba. 
Samuel  Akerly,  Faadtatis  Scribal 
(Iv.  S.) 

To  this  honor  Hahnemann  replied  to  Dr.  Gray  as  follows: 

*"  Minutes  of  Medical  Societj'  of  County  of  New  York,  from  1808  to 
1878."  Dr.  Purdy,  editor.  New  York.  1879.  Also,  Horn.  Leader,  New 
York,  July,  1S83. 


AMERICAN    DIPI^OMA.  317 

''Dear  Colleague  : 

"  You  have  aflForded  me  great  pleasure  by  this  honorable  token 
in  recognition  of  my  endeavor  to  introduce  into  the  world  a  mild 
and  true  way  of  healing  the  sick  instead  of  the  hitherto  pernicious 
method  of  cure;  and  I  feel  especially  honored  by  the  fellowship 
of  those  men  of  North  America  who  are  a  pattern  to  our  Europe. 
These  North  Americans,  actuated  by  a  pure  zeal  for  human  wel- 
fare, renounce  the  old-time  and  prevailing  method  of  cure,  which 
needs  but  little  consideration;  and  on  the  other  hand,  like 
genuine  friends  of  humanity,  they  prefer  the  new  and  as  yet 
bitterly  persecuted  Homoeopathic  treatment,  which  requires  far 
more  care  and  thought  if  rightly  practiced.  May  our  all-benevo- 
lent heavenly  Father,  who  sent  us  this  healing  art,  bless  your 
honorable  body.     I  subscribe  myself  with  love, 

"  Yours  most  devotedly, 

"Samuel  Hahnemann." 

''Coethen,  lythjuly,  1833''' 

The  society  that  thus  honored  him  was  composed  of  the  lead- 
ing Allopathic  physicians  of  New  York  City. 

In  Schweikert's  Zeihc?ig  for  September  28,  1833,  Dr.  lych- 
mann  states  these  circumstances  in  a  letter.  Following  this  is 
Dr.  Gray's  letter  to  Hahnemann,  Hahnemann's  answer  and  a 
copy  of  the  diploma,  all  printed  both  in  German  and  in  English.* 

That  this  action  on  the  part  of  the  Society  in  electing  Hahne- 
mann a  member  was  not  taken  in  haste  is  well  proven  by  the 
fact  that  between  the  meeting  of  Hahnemann's  nomination  and 
that  of  his  election  two  stated  meetings,  a  regular  and  special, 
were  held.  Hahnemann  continued  a  member  until  1843,  when 
his  honorary  diploma  of  membership  was  withdrawn,  one  week 
after  his  death  !  In  the  minutes  of  the  meeting  of  July  10,  1843, 
it  is  recorded  that:  "On  motion  of  Dr.  Jas.  R.  Manley  it  was 
then  Resolved,  That  the  resolution  of  the  Society  of  November 
12,  1832,  conferring  honorary  membership  of  the  Society  on 
Samuel  F.  Hahnemann,  of  Germany,  be,  and  the  same  is  hereby 
rescinded;  carried,  ayes  28,  nays  2."  The  opposing  two  were 
Drs.  B.  F.  Joslin,  Sr.,  and  B.  F.  Bowers,  neither  of  whom  were 
at  that  time  Homoeopaths,  but  only  fair-minded  men  and  phy- 
sicians.    As  is  known,   Hahnemann   died  in  Paris  on  July  2, 

'^Zeitung  fur  horn.  Heilkunst,  Vol.  vii.,  p.  201.  Also  in  Everest's 
*•  Popular  View  of  Homoeopathy,"  New  York,  1842,  p.  135. 


3l8  LIFE   OF   HAHNEMANN. 

1843,   about  one  week  before  this  action,  although,  of  course, 
the  society  could  not  have  known  of  his  death  at  the  time. 

The  year  1833  is  notable  for  the  founding  of  the  first  Homoeo- 
pathic Society  in  the  United  States.  In  the  same  number  of 
Schweikert's  Zeitu7ig  is  a  letter  dated  Philadelphia,  May  13, 
1833,  addressed  to  Dr.  Hahnemann,  announcing  the  formation 
of  the  society  "for  the  purpose  of  giving  extension  to  Homoeo- 
pathic medicine,"  the  forwarding  a  copy  of  the  constitution 
and  the  proceedings,  and  asking  if  he  would  accept  a  diploma 
from  the  society  and  grant  them  permission  to  place  his  name  at 
the  head  of  their  list  of  members.  This  letter  was  signed  by 
Constantine  Hering,  president,  and  William  Geisse,  treasurer. 
Dr.  Chas.  F.  Matlack,  the  secretary,  added  a  postscript,  wish- 
ing the  Master  years  of  health  and  happiness.  In  the  next 
number  of  the  Zeitung  the  constitution  of  the  Society'  appeared, 
both  in  German  and  English. 


CHAPTER  LXI. 

CONDITION    OF   HOMCEOPATHY   IN    1 834 — LETTER    AND   DIPLOMA 
FROM  THE  GALLICAN  SOCIETY — HAHNEMANN  VISITS  THE 
LEIPSIC  HOSPITAL — DENUNCIATION  OF  HOUSEHOLD 
ADVISER — SIXTH  MEETING  OF  CENTRAL  UNION. 
LAST  FESTAL  DAY  IN  GERMANY — LAST   AP- 
PEAL  FOR  THE   HOSPITAL. 

The  year  1834  opened  favorably  for  Homoeopathy  throughout 
the  world.  Quite  a  coterie  of  faithful  men  in  America  were  fol- 
lowing the  path  of  Hahnemann.  The  new  system  had  gained  a 
foothold  in  New  York,  in  Philadelphia  and  in  the  surround- 
ing country.  A  Homoeopathic  journal  had  been  started  in 
Philadelphia.  Russia  had  granted  to  Dr.  Herrmann  the  right 
to  practice  in  every  part  of  the  kingdom.  In  Naples  trials  were 
being  made  in  the  militar}^  hospital  with  good  results. 

In  Karlsruhe  a  Homoeopathic  journal  called  the  Hygea  was 
established,  of  which  Greisselich  became  the  principal  editor. 
The  Allgemeine  Zeitung  was  in  a  flourishing  condition.  The 
Archiv  was  still  published  by  Stapf. 


SPREAD    OF   HOMCEOPATHY.  319 

Several  Homoeopathic  societies  had  been  formed  in  different 
countries.  Homoeopathic  books  were  being  published.  The 
previous  year  Mr.  Charles  H.  Devrient  had  rendered  the 
"  Organon  "  from  the  fourth  German  edition  into  English  ;  this 
was  edited  by  Dr.  Samuel  Stratten,  who  did  not  practice  Hom- 
oeopathy and  only  understood  it  theoretically,  and  was  published 
at  Dublin,  Ireland. 

As  early  as  1830  the  "Organon"  was  rendered  into  Hun- 
garian, and  before  this  date  Bernardo  Guaranta  had  given  it  to 
the  Italians. 

It  is  estimated  that  at  this  time  the  number  of  Homoeopathic 
physicians  in  Germany,  exclusive  of  Switzerland  and  Austria, 
was  eighty-eight. 

A  Homoeopathic  society  was  in  1834  founded  in  Paris;  Dr. 
Leon  Simon  and  Dr.  Curie  had  also  founded  the  Journal  de  la 
Medicine  Homceopathique. 

In  1S30  Dr.  Des  Guidi  returned  from  Naples  to  Lyons,  intro- 
ducing Homoeopathy  into  France,  while  in  1834  there  were 
quite  a  number  of  practitioners  of  the  system  and  several  Hom- 
oeopathic books  had  also  been  issued  from  the  French  press. 

In  May,  1834,  the  Galilean  Homoeopathic  Society,  a  national 
society  established  since  1832,  sent  Hahnemann  an  honorary- 
diploma,  in  reply  to  which  he  wrote  the  following  letter  :* 

"  CoETHEN,  6  February,  1835. 
' '  To  THE  GaIvLican  Homceopathic  Society. 

' '  Gentlemen  and  Honorable  Brothers  :  I  have  at  this  late  day 
received  your  letter  of  the  12th  of  May,  1834.  I  am  profoundly 
affected  by  the  sentiments  that  you  have  so  kindly  expressed 
towards  me  and  which  you  have  in  such  a  delicate  manner 
shown  through  your  honorable  secretary.  I  accept  with 
pleasure  the  title  of  honorary  member  transmitted  to  me  by  the 
diploma  and  by  your  letter,  and  beg  of  you  to  accept  my  sincere 
thanks  for  your  graceful  attention.  Our  beneficent  art  pro- 
gresses in  France  as  you  tell  me,  and  other  reports  confirm  this. 
The  society  recently  established  at  Paris  and  which  has  named 
me  its  president  of  honor  gives  a  happy  proof.  I  love  France 
and  her  noble  people,  so  great,  so  generous,  so  disposed  to  re- 
form abuses  by  adopting  new  and  better  ways  ;  this  predilection 

* Bibliotheque  Homceopathique,  1835,  Vol.  v.,  p.  61.  Horn.  Exam., 
Vol.  ii.,  p.  10. 


320  LIFE   OF   HAHNEMANN. 

has  been  increased  in  my  heart  by  my  marriage  with  a  noble 
French  lady  worthy  of  her  country.  May  God,  of  whom  I  am 
but  the  instrument,  bless  the  efforts  of  all  of  you  who  labor  with 
me  in  the  medical  reformation  so  necessary  for  the  good  of  men. 
Blind  as  many  still  remain,  let  us  do  them  a  service  despite 
themselves,  thej'-  will  be  grateful  sometime,  because  our  principle 
is,  like  the  light,  one  of  the  grandest  truths  of  nature. 

"I  commend  myself  to  your  remembrance  and  friendship. 
"May  good  luck  attend  you, 
"Samuel  Hahnemann." 

Hahnemann  continued  during  all  this  time  his  interest  in  the 
Leipsic  Hospital.  In  June,  1834,  he  visited  Leipsic  and  assisted 
at  a  celebration  held  at  that  Institution. 

Schweikert's  Jotirnal  gives  the  following  account  :*  "The 
17th  of  this  month  (June)  was  established  by  the  Homoeopathic 
Union  as  a  day  of  celebration  for  the  Homoeopathic  Hospital 
founded  in  this  city  and  maintained  by  private  effort  and  chari- 
table contributions,  and  the  day  was  made  thus  important  just 
because  during  the  forenoon  of  it  the  hospital  was  inspected  by 
the  Honorable  Dr.  Hahnemann,  the  venerable  President  of  the 
Union.  He  had  arrived  there  for  that  purpose  the  day  before, 
accompanied  by  his  three  daughters  and  by  Dr.  Lehmann,  Herr 
Isensee,  Councilor  of  Justice,  Herr  Rhost,  Superior  Bailiff,  and 
their  wives,  and  Dr.  Jahr,  of  Gotha. 

"The  resident  Homoeopathic  physicians  whom  he  had  invited 
to  meet  him  in  the  evening  of  that  day  to  confer  about  certain 
new  regulations  for  promoting  the  further  success  of  the  hospital 
celebrated  his  arrival  with  a  serenade  in  front  of  the  windows  of 
the  Hotel  de  Pologne,  where  he  was  stopping,  and  at  the  con- 
clusion of  it  the  assembled  multitude  burst  forth  in  a  shout  of 
applause.  He,  not  having  visited  Leipsic  for  thirteen  years,  was 
greatly  surprised  at  such  a  demonstration  of  welcome,  and  several 
of  the  friends  surrounding  him  exclaimed:  'Voxpopuli,  vox  Dei — 
the  voice  of  the  people  is  the  voice  of  God.' 

"  The  hospital  was  splendidly  decorated  for  the  reception  of 
Hahnemann,  and  he  was  enthusiastically  welcomed  with  befitting 
ceremony  by  an  address  in  I^atin  by  its  director,  Dr.  Schweikert. 
This  address  (which  is  one  of  the  grandest  tributes  ever  paid  to 
the  distinguished  services  of  a  great  public  benefactor  in  the 
*Zeitung  der  homoopath.  Heilkunst,  "^un^  2?),  1834. 


VISIT   TO   LEIPSIC    HOSPITAL.  32 1 

annals  of  history. — Ed.)  was  delivered  in  the  conference  room, 
in  which  was  assembled  a  highly  respectable  company  of  ladies 
and  gentlemen,  as  well  as  nearly  all  the  Homoeopathic  physicians 
of  the  city. 

"The  venerable  man,  then  in  his  seventy- ninth  year,  re- 
sponded in  German  and  expressed  his  thanks,  as  well  as  his  per- 
fect satisfaction  with  the  Institution  and  with  its  director.  He 
made  a  donation  to  the  endowment  fund  as  well  as  presents  to 
the  staiF  of  nurses,  and  then  visited  the  rooms  of  the  patients, 
where  he  appeared  much  pleased  with  the  deportment  of  the  oc- 
cupants. He  dined  in  his  rooms  with  many  of  his  admiring 
guests,  and  after  enjoying  a  delightful  afternoon  in  the  little 
*  Swiss  Hut  of  the  Rosenthal'  he  spent  a  few  hours  wiih  the 
guests  in  instructing  and  entertaining  converse.  His  time  did 
not  permit  him  to  tarry  any  longer  in  lycipsic,  and  he  left  it  early 
the  following  morning  (the  i8th)  accompanied  with  many  hearty 
wishes  that  he  might  have  a  long  and  happy  life." 

Rather  a  peculiar  circumstance  occurred  in  July  of  1834,  which 
will  quite  plainly  show  Hahnemann's  opinion  upon  domestic 
hand-books.  This  year  his  daughter  Eleonore,  wife  of  Dr. 
Wolfif,  published  a  small  book  entitled  "  Homoeopathic  House- 
hold Adviser."  Hahnemann  inserted  the  following  note  in  the 
Allg.  horn.  Zeitung  for  August  11,  1834  :* 

"Explanation. — The  book,  '  Homoeopathic  Adviser,' under 
the  name  of  my  daughter  Eleonore,  wedded  to  Dr.  Wolff,  and 
who  has  never  had  anything  to  do  with  this  method  of  healing, 
has  been  published  without  my  knowledge  and  in  opposition  to 
my  wish.  Of  course,  I  am  well  aware  how  misleading  and  in- 
jurious such  incomplete,  superficial  and  doubtful  prescriptions 
can  and  must  become  to  the  general  public.  I,  therefore,  pub- 
licly avow  myself  to  be  in  nowise  connected  with  the  said  publica- 
tion and  I  challenge  everybody  (see  Magdeburg  Gazette,  No.  156,) 
to  point  out  to  me  any  secret  remedy  that  I  would  not  have  com- 
municated to  the  world. 

"Dr.  Samuel  Hahnemann,  Hofrath. 

"  Coet/ien,  July  10,  iSj^y 

Hahnemann  plainly  refers  to  the  episode  of  the  Bellado?tna. 

An  extended  criticism  of  this  book  had  appeared  in  the 
Zeitung  for  July  28,  1834,  by  Dr.  Alphons  Noack.    It  is  likely  that 

*Allg.  horn.  Zeit.,  Vol.  v.,  p.  31. 


322  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN, 

the  criticism  induced  Hahnemann  to  repudiate  this  "  Rathgeber 
fur  das  Haus,  von  Kleonore  WolfiF,  geb.  Hahnemann." 

The  sixth  meeting  of  the  Central  Union  was  held  at  Coethen, 
on  August  ID,  1834,*  under  the  presidency  of  Hahnemann,  who 
now  assumed  the  supreme  power.  His  personal  friends  only 
were  present,  and  Dr.  Lehmann,  Hahnemann's  assistant,  moved 
the  dissolution  of  the  Central  Society  and  the  formation  of  a 
Saxon  Provincial  Society.  Dr.  Schweikert  having  applied  to 
Hahnemann  to  use  his  influence  in  raising  money  to  continue 
the  Leipsic  Hospital,  and  Hahnemann  having  asked  for  donations, 
the  money  was  all  sent  to  him  and  he  assumed  entire  control  of 
its  destinies,  forbidding  the  Central  Union  to  interfere,  though 
the  hospital  was  really  their  own  property. f 

He  raised  Schweikert' s  salary  from  400  to  800  thalers  and  he 
assumed  entire  management,  spending  the  money  without  giv- 
ing any  account. 

Hahnemann  declared  Lehmann  director  of  Homoeopathy,  and 
Schweikert  and  Seidel  resigned.  None  of  the  Leipsic  physicians 
would  become  director  and  the  fate  of  the  Institution  was  in 
doubt.  Before  the  loth  of  August,  1835,  Hahnemann  had  left 
Germany,  and  the  Central  Society  again  assumed  control  of  the 
hospital.! 

This  meeting  on  the  loth  of  August,  1834,  was  the  last  time 
Hahnemann  was  destined  to  greet  his  disciples  in  his  native  land. 
That  in  the  affair  of  the  hospital  he  had  been  arbitrary  is  quite 
sure,  but  may  not  his  action  be  justified  when  we  remember  that 
with  him  his  method  of  healing  was  a  religion,  and  that  his  op- 
position was  not  so  much  to  the  individual  as  to  the  principle  at 
stake.  Hahnemann  feared  that  his  cause  would  be  weakened 
were  anything  but  pure  Homoeopathy  to  be  taught  in  this  first 
hospital. 

Albrecht  says  of  this  period:  "The  loth  of  August,  1834,  was 
the  last  Festal  day  he  celebrated  in  Germany.  We  pause  now  at 
a  mile  stone  and  reflect  upon  the  life  of  Hahnemann.  He  had 
much  of  prosperity  in  his  married  life,  in  which  nine  daughters 
and  two  sons  were  given  him.  His  spouse  was  of  a  generous 
and  proud  spirit,  and  was  the  treasure  oi  his  married  life.     A 

^Stapfs  Archiv,  Vol.  xiv.,  part  3,  p.  92. 

■\Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  xxx..  p.  466. 

:}:" Trans.  World's  Horn.  Convention,"  1876,  Vol.  ii.,  p.  26. 


HOMCEOPATHIC   HOSPITAL.  323 

worthy  housewife,  a  faithful  partner,  hostess  and  mother,  and 
throughout  her  life  renouncing  pleasure,  she  had  journeyed 
through  the  world  his  faithful  helpmate.  Elated  by  the  aspira- 
tions of  her  own  soul  she  had  considered  him  capable  of  passing 
forward  to  the  height  of  renown.  So  that  after  he  had  reached 
the  haven  of  rest  at  Coethen  he  was  often  impelled  in  his  brighter 
hours  to  say  to  the  dear  life  partner:  'Yes.  little  mother,  it  is 
true,  how  many  and  varied  the  persecutions  I  would  have  had 
without  thee,  persecutions  which  would  have  overwhelmed  me; 
how  could  I  have  been  able  with  such  courage  and  strength  to 
endure  the  storms  of  life,  which  drove  us  over  half  the  world,  if 
thou  hadst  not  stood  so  faithfully  and  lovingly  by  my  side.'* 

"  One  would  hear  similar  utterances  when  Hahnemann  left 
his  work  early  in  the  evening,  often  between  nine  and  ten  o'clock. 
He  would  then  come  into  the  sitting  room,  sit  down  by  his  wife 
and  ask  her  to  play  something  on  the  piano.  '  How  would  I 
have  been  able,'  he  would  exclaim  in  such  moments,  grasping 
the  hand  of  his  wife,  and  looking  fondly  in  her  eyes  with  the 
ardor  of  the  love  of  youth,  '  how  would  I  have  been  able,  I  repeat, 
without  thee,  beloved, f  to  persevere  in  so  many  relations  of  life 
that  were  liable  to  fail;  how,  without  thee,  to  achieve  my  under- 
taking in  spite  of  all  difficulties  and  to  conquer,  with  unimpaired 
strength,  all  my  enemies  ?  If  thou  remainest  by  my  side  I  trust 
to  obtain  the  most  complete  victory.'  But  death  dissolved  the 
happy   bond." 

That  Hahnemann  was  interested  in  the  welfare  of  the  Leipsic 
Homoeopathic  Hospital  until  the  very  time  of  his  departure  for 
Paris  is  well  demonstrated  by  the  following  letter: 

"  An  Appeal  to  All  Homoeopathic  Physicians  " 
"  Kver  since  it  has  been  in  existence,  and  especially  in  the  last 
few  years,  the  lycipsic  Homoeopathic  Hospital  has  accomplished 
much  that  is  good  and  gratifying  through  the  exemplary  regula- 
tions which  its  internal  management  has  received  at  the  hands 
of  its  present  director,  the  well-known,  truly  practical  Homoeo- 
pathic physician,  Dr.  Schweikert,  as  well  as  through  the  un- 
wearied activity  with  which  he  directs  the  whole  Institution.  It 
will  be  seen  from  the  forthcoming  annals  of  the  Institute  how 
much  need  there  is  of  the  most  active  and  powerful  support  of 


*"  Hahnemann's  Leben  uud  Wirken."  Albrecht.   Leipsic.    1875.  P.  72. 
tThe  German  word  used  here  is  Geliebte. 


324  WFE   OF   HAHNEMANN. 

Homoeopathic  physicians  and  beneficent  friends  of  humanity  if 
it  is  to  be  permanent  and  produce  further  good  for  science  and 
mankind.  Since  the  number  of  beds  is  now  twenty-one,  and 
the  whole  cost  of  the  yearly  support,  according  to  a  superficial 
estimate,  amounts  to  3,000  thalers,  and  in  addition  to  this  the 
patients  themselves  may  possibly  amount  to  about  i ,  300,  in  accord- 
ance with  the  regulation  now  in  vogue,  the  Institute  can  only  be 
permanent  if  an  additional  2,000  thalers  is  raised  annually  by- 
contributions.  And,  apart  from  this,  the  slight  capital  ought 
not  to  be  exhausted.  This  is  ver}^  easily  done  if  every  Homoeo- 
pathic physician,  as  many  have  already  agreed  to  do,  obligates 
himself  to  contribute  a  definite  yearl}'  amount,  according  to 
his  ability  (although  at  present  only  in  five  years),  and  if  each 
of  them  makes  an  effort  to  induce  other  beneficent  friends  to- 
make  contributions  and  collects  them  and  sends  the  sum  total 
every  year,  not  la|;er  than  the  loth  of  August,  to  the  Steward, 
the  bookseller  Schumann,  through  either  the  bookseller  or  the 
Provincial  Society  in  his  neighborhood.  To  such  assistance  and 
effort  I  urgently  invite  all  worthy  Homoeopathic  practitioners 
and  friends  of  humanity  who  have  at  heart  the  promotion  of  our 
only  true  healing  art,  by  means  of  the  exemplary  Homoeopathic 
Hospital  in  L,eipsic,  in  which  everyone  can  be  convinced  with 
his  own  eyes  of  the  unsurpassability  of  this  art  of  healing. 

"Samuel  Hahnemann. "^^ 
''  Coethen,  8th  May,  1835:' 

After  Hahnemann  went  to  Paris  the  Central  Society  becoming 
free  from  his  domination  the  members  became  more  united  ;  the 
government  subsidy  asked  for  the  hospital  was  as  yet  withheld, 
but  it  managed  to  struggle  on  until,  in  1836,  a  small  yearly  sub- 
sidy was  allowed  from  the  Saxon  Government.  In  1839  it  ^^^ 
in  a  measure  regained  its  usefulness  ;  the  Leipsic  physicians  as- 
sumed the  management  and  there  was  a  sufficiency  of  patients. 
But  there  was  not  sufficient  funds  and  it  was  decided  to  gain 
them  by  mortgaging  the  hospital  property.  The  government 
subsidy  was  continued  and  the  Institution  continued,  until  in  June, 
1 841,  the  money  being  almost  gone  and  a  foreclosure  of  the 
mortgage  imminent,  it  was  changed  into  a  dispensary. f 

In  1837,  after  all  the  trouble  was  over,  Dr.  Moritz  Muller,  in 

*  Allg.  horn.  Zeit.,  June  29,  1835,  (Vol.  vi.,  p.  366.) 
'\  Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  xxx.,  p.  466. 


MLLE.    D  HERVILI.Y.  325 

a  pamphlet  entitled  the  "History  of  Homoeopathy"*  gave  an  ac- 
count of  the  growth  of  the  Homoeopathic  system,  the  Fest-Jubilee 
■of  1829,  the  meeting  of  1S30,  the  establishment  of  the  hospital, 
the  difficulties  in  regard  to  its  progress;  in  fact,  gave  a  complete 
analysis  of  the  whole  transaction. 

The  German  physicians  all  unite  in  saying  that  Hahnemann 
•by  his  spirit  of  domination  greatly  hindered  the  growth  of  the 
Homoeopathic  system  at  that  time  in  Germany.  But  it  cannot 
be  denied  that  this  spirit  arose  from  a  fear  that  the  law  of  the 
similars,  as  Hahnemann  understood  it,  would  lose  credit  in  the 
Tiands  of  men  who  might  use  it  in  connection  with  the  old 
manner  of  prescribing.  And  this  fully  explains  the  seemingly 
extreme  course  that  Hahnemann  took  previous  to  his  departure 
from  Germany. 

Before  Hahnemann  left  Germany  he  had  the  satisfaction  of 
rseeing  the  right  granted  in  the  Duchy  of  Saxe-Meiningen,  by 
the  Grand  Duke  Bernhard,  to  Homoeopathic  physicians  to  prac- 
tice Homoeopathy  and  to  dispense  Homoeopathic  medicines. 
This  grant  is  dated  October  21,  1834.! 


CHAPTER  LXII. 

MI.LE.     d'hERVILLY  —  SECOND    MARRIAGE  —  ROMANTIC   STORIES 
ABOUT   THE    BRIDE. 

We  now  reach  a  romantic  episode  in  the  life  of  this  wonderful 
man.     At  the  age  of  eighty  he  married  a  wife  of  thirty-five. 

After  the  death  of  the  wife  of  his  youth  he  had  continued  to 
live  very  quietly  in  the  house  at  Coethen,  well  taken  care  of  by 
his  daughters,  devoting  his  time  to  his  large  practice  and  to  the 
delights  of  his  medical  researches. 

In  the  latter  part  of  the  year  1834  Mile.  Melanie  d'Hervilly 
Oohier,  adopted  daughter  of  lyouis  Jerome  Cohier,  Minister  of 
Justice  and  President  of  the  Executive  Directory  of  the  French 
Republic  in  the  time  of  the  i8th  Brumaire  (1799),  having  heard 
of  Hahnemann's  skill  as  a  physician,  came  to  Coethen  in  order 

*  "Zur  GeschicMeder  Homoopathie."     Leipzig.      Reclam.     1837. 
\ Horn.  Exam.,  Vol.  ii.,  p.  72. 


326  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN, 

to  benefit  by  it.  Mile.  Gohier  was  a  French  artist  of  some  note, 
of  a  good  family  and  possessed  of  an  independent  fortune,  who 
was  making  a  tour  through  Germany  at  this  time.  What  her 
complaint  was  does  not  seem  to  be  very  clearly  shown.  It  has 
been  stated  that  it  was  some  pulmonary  trouble,  and  again  that 
it  was  the  lady's  mother  and  not  herself  who  was  ill. 

However,  they  became  interested  mutually,  and  she  was  so 
impressed  with  the  vast  treasures  of  Hahnemann's  mind  and  he 
was  so  well  pleased  with  her  attainments  that  he  asked  her  to 
share  her  life  with  him. 

Hartmann'says:'=^  "The  high  estimation  in  which  they  held 
each  other  favored  and  realized  this  wish;  no  motive  of  self- 
interest  led  to  this  bond,  for  his  wife  sprang  from  a  good  and 
rich  family  and  had  the  independent  disposal  of  her  wealth." 

So,  on  the  28th  of  January,  1835,  they  were  married  in  Coethen. 
His  wedding  journey  was  to  Leipsic. 

Albrecht  says:t  "As  a  bridegroom  he  traveled  to  Leipsic, 
accompanied  by  his  bride  and  daughters.  Here  he  gave,  in  the 
Hotel  de  Pologne,  a  festive  farewell  banquet  to  his  pupils,  and 
indulged  in  converse  with  them  regarding  the  new  system  of 
medicine." 

Homoeopathy  had  in  the  meanwhile  gained  a  footing  in  Paris, 
as  in  many  other  places.  During  the  winter  of  1834-5  Dr.  Leon 
Simon,  pere,  had  delivered  a  course  of  lectures  on  the  principles 
of  Homoeopathy.  These  lectures  were  published  under  the  title: 
"Lecons  de  Medicine  Homoeopathique.  Paris.  Bailliere.  1835." 
The  first  lecture  of  the  course  was  delivered  on  January  26,  1835, 
in  the  Royal  Athenaeum. 

In  1834  there  was  organized  a  Homoeopathic  Society  in  Paris 
called  the  "Institute  Homoeopathique." 

The  same  year  the.  Jour7ial  de  la  Medicine  Homceopathiqiie ,  under 
the  editorship  of  Drs.  Leon  Simon,  pere,  and  Curie,  pere,  was 
organized.  Dr.  Jourdan,  in  1834,  commenced  to  publish  the 
Archives  de  la  Medicine  HomceopatJiiquc. 

Among  the  honors  that  Hahnemann  received  at  this  time  was 
one  from  the  new  Homoeopathic  College,  in  far-off  Pennsylvania, 
in  the  United  States.  He  was,  on  his  birthday,  April  loth,  1835, 
elected  Honorary  Member  of  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the  North 

*Hartmaiin's  "Life  of  Hahnemann"  (Caspari's  Domestic).     Allg.  hom. 
Zeit.,  Vol.  xxvi.,  p.  245  (Hartmann's  "  Leben  "). 
t  Albrecht's  "  Leben  und  Wirkeu,"  p.  74. 


MLLE.    D  HERVILLY.  327 

American  Academy  of  Homoeopathy,  at  AUentown,  Pa.  His 
wife  received  a  little  later  an  honorary  diploma  from  the  same 
Institution.* 

In  the  year  1835  the  Homoeopathic  physicians  of  Paris, 
through  the  Galilean  Homoeopathic  Medical  Society,  requested 
from  the  Minister  of  Public  Instruction  of  France  permission 
to  establish  Homoeopathic  dispensaries  and  a  hospital  in 
Paris.  This  request  was  by  the  minister  referred  to  the  French 
Academy  of  Medicine.  Hahnemann,  seeing  this  fact  in  the 
French  Moniteur,  addressed  the  minister  in  a  letter  dated 
Coethen,  Feburary  13,  1835,  asking  him  to  consult  the  Hom- 
oeopathic society  for  information.  Among  other  things  he 
says:t  "  The  welfare  of  humanity  interests  me  too  intensely  to 
allow  me  to  remain  silent  before  a  question  of  such  importance. 
All  the  systems  of  medicines  hitherto  invented  regard  diseases 
as  capable  of  being  displaced  materially  by  violent  means  which 
weak^  the  vital  force  with  bloodletting  and  evacuations  of  all 
sorts.  Homoeopathy,  on  the  contrary,  acting  dynamically  on  the 
vital  spirits,  destroys  diseases  in  a  gentle,  imperceptible  and  dur- 
able manner.  Hence  it  is  not  merely  an  ingenious  invention,  a 
skillful  combination  that  produces  results  more  or  less  beneficial 
in  its  application,  but  it  is  a  principle  of  eternal  nature,  the  only 
one  able  to  restore  to  man  his  lost  health." 

It  may  be  stated  that  the  petition  was  not  granted  by  the 
French  authorities.  This  letter,  written  in  the  next  month  after 
marriage,  indicates  that  the  old  man  was  already  looking  toward 
Paris  and  becoming  interested  in  the  future  of  Homoeopathy  in 
that  city. 

Madame  Hahnemann  wished  to  return  to  Paris,  and  Hahne- 
mann does  not  seem  to  have  made  ^ny  objection  to  leaving  his 
own  country.  This  plan  must  have  been  decided  upon  soon  after 
marriage,  if  not  before,  as  Albrecht  speaks  of  a  farewell  dinner 
to  the  pupils  at  Ivcipsic. 

A  great  many  diverse  accounts  of  this  period  in  the  life  of 
Hahnemann  have  been  published.  It  is  stated  that  when  Mile. 
Gohier  first  visited  Coethen  she  was  dressed  in  male  attire.  This 
is  probably  true.  The  friends  of  Madame  Hahnemann  admit 
this.     The  fact  is  excused  by  the  argument  that  it  was  not  iin- 

*"  Trans.  World's  Horn.  Convention,"  1876,  Vol.  ii.,  p.  784. 
■\ Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  xxxviii.,  p  64. 


328  LIFE   OF    HAHNEMANN. 

common  at  that  time.  From  the  year  1824  it  was  a  sort  of  fash- 
ion among  women  to  dress  in  male  costume.  Sue,  the  novelist, 
saj'S  that  in  1824  it  was  estimated  that  not  less  than  2000  women 
were  in  the  habit  of  wearing  trousers  in  Paris.  It  was  by  no 
means  considered  as  any  proof  of  lack  of  good  character,  nor 
has  anyone,  for  one  moment,  ever  doubted  that  Mile.  d'Hervilly 
was  a  pure  minded  lady.  M.  Sanches,  a  French  gentleman,  in 
a  letter  to  the  editor  of  the  British  Jo^irnal  of  Homozopathy ,  in 
1878,  soon  after  Madame  Hahnemann's  death,  says:*  "Mile. 
Marie  Melanie  d'Hervilly  only  changed  her  feminine  garments 
for  male  attire  when  she  was  an  artist  and  when  she  went  alone 
into  the  country  to  sketch  some  beautiful  views  and  landscapes. 
The  wearing  of  the  male  attire  by  lady  and  girl  artists  when  they 
go  to  set  up  their  easel  in  solitary  places  in  order  to  pursue  their 
artistic  studies  is  not  only  a  recognized  habit  in  France,  it  is  in  a 
manner  obligatory  on  them." 

It  is  said  that  the  great  French  artist,  Rosa  Bonheur^  never 
dressed  in  any  other  manner  while  on  her  sketching  excursions. 

Another  story  is  told  as  follows:!  "Mile.  Gohier  arrived  at 
Coethen  in  the  evening  dressed  in  male  attire  and  stopped  for 
the  night  at  the  Central  Hotel.  As  it  was  late  when  she  ar- 
rived no  particular  attention  was  paid  to  the  young  stranger  at 
that  time  and  she  retired  to  her  room.  The  barber  attached  to 
the  hotel,  as  was  there  the  custom,  in  the  morning  presented 
himself  to  inquire  if  the  gentleman  wished  to  be  shaved,  and  was 
greatly  astonished  on  entering  the  bedroom  to  find  instead  of  the 
young  Frenchman  he  expected  an  elegant  lady  lacing  her  stays." 

In  an  article  in  the  Homceopathic  World,  August  i,  1878, 
written  by  a  "Relative  of  the  Family,"  it  is  stated  that: 
"  Hahnemann's  name  and  fame  had  already  obtained  a  world- 
wide reputation  when  he  lost  his  first  wife,  who  had  been  a  real 
treasure  to  him.  It  all  at  once  struck  the  fancy  of  a  young 
French  woman  to  woo  the  distinguished  widower,  if  possible  to 
marry  him  and  bring  him  to  Paris  where  she  would  be  sure  to 
realize  a  fortune,  if  the  kind  fates  would  only  favor  her  plans. 
She,  therefore,  set  out  in  the  year  of  1835  on  the  tedious  jour- 
ney from  Paris  to  Coethen,  and  arrived  one  evening  dressed  in 
male  attire.  Great  was  the  astonishment  in  the  morning  at  the 
hotel  to  find  the  young  Frenchman  of  the  evening  transformed 

*  Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  xxxvii.,  p.  99. 
■\Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  xxxvii.,  p.  102. 


MLLE.    D  HERVILI.Y.  329 

into  a  well-dressed  and  good-looking  woman.  She  at  once  made 
minute  inquiries  about  the  habits  of  our  master,  and  having  ob- 
tained sufficient  information  she  went  straight  to  Hahnemann's 
residence  for  the  purpose,  as  she  alleged,  of  consulting  him 
about  herself." 

After  the  death  of  Madame  Hahnemann,  in  1878,  the  circum- 
stances of  his  life  were  discussed  at  some  length  in  the  British 
and  French  Homoeopathic  journals.  It  is,  however,  generally 
admitted  that  whatever  the  manner  of  the  first  meeting  Hahne- 
mann's second  wife  made  the  last  years  of  his  life  very  happy. 

Albrecht  thus  writes  concerning  Mile.  d'Hervilly  Gohier:* 
"We  purposely  limit  ourselves  to  the  very  little  that  we  have  in 
manuscript  about  Melanie.  Melanie,  who  was  a  second  March- 
ioness Diidevantf  in  intellectual  ability,  had  learned  riding 
and  swimming,  and  was  passionately  fond  of  these  physical  ac- 
complishments. She  possessed  all  kinds  of  guns  and  knew  how 
to  handle  them  in  genuine  sportsmanlike  manner.  She  had 
been  at  the  school  of  painting  and  had  visited  the  dissecting 
room.  On  a  visit  to  the  Paris  Bourse  one  day  she  learned  that 
Hahnemann  had  been  appointed  president  of  the  Medical 
Faculty  of  New  York.  Then  she  immediately  said  to  herself: 
'  Where  the  man  lives  I  must  go,  I  must  investigate  this.' 
This  is  her  own  language.  Following  her  own  inclination,  she 
went  most  of  the  time  in  male  attire.  Hahnemann,  who  had 
strong  moral  views,  could  not  approve  of  such  conduct  and  op- 
posed it.  But  how  was  he  to  help  it  ?  After  their  marriage  they 
travelled  as  father  and  son  from  Coethen  to  Paris.  She  was  wont 
to  say,  '  I  prefer  going  about  with  men,  for  no  sensible  word  can 
be  addressed  to  a  woman.'  As  a  matter  of  curiosity,  we  find 
room  for  the  following  particulars : 

"The  father  of  Hahnemann's  second  wife  was  a  painter  from 
Saxony,  who  was  blind  and  destitute.  Hahnemann  took  him 
to  his  home  and  cared  for  him.  Her  mother  was  severely  afflicted 
with  the  gout.  She  had  a  brother  who  was  a  merchant  in  New 
York." 

*"  Ein  Biographisches  Denkmal,"  Leipzig,  1851,  p.  114. 

fThe  real  name  of  the  novelist  whose  nom  de  plume  was  George  Sand. 


330  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

CHAPTER  LXIII. 

NEWSPAPER  WIT — ISENSEE's  STATEMENT  ABOUT  THE  MARRIAGE. 

After  Hahnemann's  marriage  certain  of  the  German  news- 
papers notably  one  published  in  Coethen,  made  him  the  butt  of 
a  species  of  small  wit.  This  paper  had  before  refused  an  article 
by  Hahnemann,  in  refutation  of  an  essay  against  his  treatment 
of  cholera,  that  had  appeared  in  its  columns,  simply  because 
the  Allopathic  censor  of  the  press  disliked  Hahnemann. 

Some  of  the  statements  are  given  below.  The  last  letter  is 
from  the  lawyer  Isensee,  who,  as  he  was  Hahnemann's  own  at- 
torney, may  be  depended  upon  to  know  the  truth.  Ameke  (p. 
287)  also  mentions  the  ring,  worth  500  thalers.  and  some  other  of 
these  false  statements. 

"Hahnemann's  Second  Marriage. ""^ 

"Who  has  not  heard  that  our  still  vigorous,  eighty  years  old 
Dr.  Hahnemann  was  married  again  on  January  18,  1835?  (Al- 
brecht  names  the  date  of  marriage  as  the  28th  of  January. — Ed.) 
The  reason  for  marrying  again  at  so  advanced  an  age  has  been 
given  by  himself  many  times,  and  several  newspapers  have  her- 
alded the  matter;  but  no  one  has  hit  the  nail  on  the  head. 

"And  there  has  been  no  lack  of  mockers  and  evil  prophesiers, 
who  have  made  fun  of  the  old  man  and  his  flame,  as  they  call 
her.  And  if  only  the  witty  remarks  are  taken  into  account  they 
have  been  'downright  bad,'  as  we  are  accustomed  to   say,  since 

the  editor  of  the is  certainly  not  the  last  a'nd   the  least. 

But,  whether  the  facts  related  by  him  are  true  or  false,  it  is  of  no- 
concern  to  the  venerable  man,  for  only  the  little  village  com- 
munity laughs  at  them.  This  writer  says,  in  No.  22  of  his  paper 
for  1835:  'The  renowned  father  of  Homoeopathy,  Dr.  Hahne- 
mann, in  Coethen,  in  order  to  show  the  world  how  his  system  of 
medicine  is  glorified  by  the  act,  was  married  again  the  i8th  of 
last  January,  in  the  eightieth  year  of  his  age.  His  wife  is  a 
young  Catholic  woman,  the  daughter  of  a  nobleman  in  Paris. 
The  yozcng  old  man  is  still  in  the  prime  of  his  vigor  and  chal- 
lenges all  Allopaths,  'Imitate  me,  if  you  can.'  Besides  other 
*  Volksblatter  fur  horn.  Heilverfahren.  Wahrhold,  Vol.  i.,  p.  150. 


ISENSEE  S   STATEMENT.  33 1 

costly  things,  the  old  bridegroom  presented  to  his  young  bride, 
when  she  came  to  consult  him,  as  an  invalid,  dressed  in  men's 
clothes,  a  ring  worth  500  thalers,  and  bequeathed  to  her  40,000 
thalers;  but  to  his  children  only  30,000  Homoeopathic  thalers. 
It  is  common  rumor  that  certain  Allopaths  are  inclined  to  prac- 
tice Homoeopathy.' 

"  The  writer  says  later,  in  No.  37  of  his  paper:  'We  see  that 
not  merely  German  Homoeopathy,  like  Dr.  Hahnemann,  can  be- 
queath to  wife  and  children  properties  worth  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands, but  also  French  Allopathy.  The  renowned  surgeon,  Du- 
puytran,  who  has  just  died  in  Paris,  has  left  his  daughters  seven 
millions  francs.' 

"  Again,  in  No.  43:  'Dr.  Hahnemann,  the  father  of  Homoe- 
opathy, has  gone  on  a  visit  to  Paris  with  his  young  French  bride, 
and  his  daughters  are  obliged  to  keep  house  all  alone  for  the 
first  time.' 

"  Ivastly,  in  No.  53:  '  People  of  discriminating  minds  wish  to 
know  whether  the  journey  of  Dr.  Hahnemann  to  Paris  is  merely 
a  Homoeopathic  preference.  The  young  French  woman  whom 
Hahnemann  married  soon  hastened  to  Paris  after  the  wedding. 
In  order  to  cure  the  matrimonial  ill  the  experienced  Homoeopath, 
in  accordance  with  the  fundamental  principle  of  his  school,  has 
made  a  practical  application  of  similia  similibus  (like  to  like) 
and  has  also  hastened  to  Paris.' 

"In  order  to  stop  the  circulation  of  such  untrue  reports  and 
worthless  witticisms,  a  well-known  lawyer  of  Coethen  prepared 
this  document- scourge  and  lashed  therewith  the  mouths  of  the 
noisy  blatants,  as  follows  : 

"  '  PUB1.1C  DecIvAration  of  the  Truth.'  " 

"  'The  reports  about  the  marriage  of  Dr.  Samuel  Hahnemann, 
in  Coethen,  to  Miss  Marie  Melanie  d'Hervilly  Gohier,  of  Paris, 
published  in  our  village  Gazette,  and  in  some  Berlin  newspapers, 
are  wholly  lies  and  are  the  most  infamous  slanders,  with  the  sole 
exception  that  such  a  wedding  did  take  place.  It  cannot  but  be 
agreeable  to  the  better  class  of  people  to  learn  the  truth;  and  I, 
who  drew  up  the  marriage  contract  or  settlement  between  the 
married  couple  and  between  Dr.  Hahnemann  and  the  children  of 
his  first  wife,  and  have  the  most  exact  knowledge  of  the  circum- 
stances, believe  this  declaration  to  be  due  both  to  the  highly 
esteemed  couple  and  to  the  public. 


332  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

' '  '  The  marriage  has  on  neither  side  any  ambiguous  subordinate 
purpose  whatever.  The  old  man,  grown  grey  in  incessant  ac- 
tivity, and  persecuted  and  aggrieved  by  all  of  his  more  intimate 
acquaintance,  soon  experienced  in  his  conversation  with  Mile. 
d'Hervilly,  who  had  come  to  him  as  an  invalid  to  be  treated,  a 
higher  enjoyment  of  life  than  he  had  previously  surmised,  and 
this  rare  enjoyment  elicited  a  profound  desire  to  end  in  quiet 
and  cheerfulness  the  last  days  of  his  stormy  life,  in  cordial  union 
with  the  creator  of  this  higher  felicity. 

"  '  She,  the  spouse,  of  a  highly  respectable  and  wealthy  family; 
thirty-five  years  old;  possessed  of  considerable  unincumbered 
property  of  her  own;  cultured  in  art  and  science,  being  a  clever 
painter  and  poet;  but,  which  is  more  important,  highly  honored 
by  the  most  renowned  and  greatly  esteemed  persons  of  her  native 
land;  sincerely  beloved  as  a  friend,  and  esteemed  and  honored 
by  all  her  acquaintances  without  exception;  she,  this  woman,  who 
had  determined  to  devote  herself  to  painting  and  scientific  ac- 
quirements, and  to  marry  no  one,  was  noble-minded  enough  to 
neglect  her  beloved  country,  her  family  ties  and  artistic  studies 
in  France  and  Italy,  as  a  sacrifice  to  the  wish  of  an  old  man, 
who  highly  deserved  such  a  sacrifice  in  order  to  render  cheerful 
the  evening  of  his  troublous  life. 

"'Only  two  conditions,  or  stipulations,  both  of  them  purely 
unselfish  and  delicate  in  character,  were  involved  in  the  assent 
to  this  marriage: 

"  '  I.  That  she  should  receive  no  portion  whatever  of  the  whole 
property  of  Hahnemann,  either  during  their  lifetime  or  at  his 
death,  but  that  all  of  it  should  go  to  his  children  and  grand- 
children without  the  slightest  abatement. 

"  '2.  And  that  Hahnemann  should  immediately  apportion  his 
property  among  said  children  and  grandchildren. 

"  'The  first  condition  is  fully  carried  out  in  the  marriage  con- 
tract drawn  up  by  me;  and,  as  respects  the  second,  I  induced 
Doctor  and  Madame  Hahnemann  to  assent  to  an  arrangement 
whereby  48,000  thalers  of  Hahnemann's  property  should  be  im- 
mediately apportioned  among  his  children  and  grandchildren, 
and  be  placed  in  the  Government  Bank,  in  their  names,  to  draw 
interest;  but  that  Hahnemann  should  receive  the  revenue  during 
his  lifetime  of  about  15,000  thalers  still  remaining  to  him,  in- 
clusive of  his  land  lots;  and,  finally,  that  his  children  and  grand- 


ISENSEE  S   STATEMENT.  333 

children  (after  his  death)  should  receive  this  reserve,  together 
with  any  residue  that  he  may  yet  earn.  I  have  this  entire  docu- 
ment respecting  Dr.  Hahnemann  and  his  children  and  grand- 
children in  my  safe,  and  administered  the  entire  estate. 

"'Madame  Hahnemann,  except  a  very  plain  gold  marriage 
ring,  received  nothing  vi^hatever,  no  goods  or  household  effects, 
and  not  a  penny  in  money,  of  Hahnemann's  property. 

"  'These  are  facts,  which  directly  and  indirectly  refute  the  cir- 
culated lies,  and  expose  the  liar  himself  to  the  just  judgment  of 
the  world. 

"'I  conclude  this  declaration  by  informing  the  public  that 
the  generous-hearted  and  noble-minded  wife  of  Hahnemann  has 
gloriously  attained  her  object,  and  finds  in  the  unmistakable 
happiness  of  her  husband  her  own,  as  well  as  ample  reward  for 
many  a  sacrifice. 

' '  '  ISENSEE, 
' '  'Justice  of  Peace. 

"  '  Coethen,  March  11,  iSj^.'  " 

It  is  an  open  secret  that  the  daughters  of  Hahnemann  were 
very  jealous  of  the  second  wife,  and  that  they  sought  in  every 
way  to  cause  her  trouble.  After  Hahnemann  by  will  left  his 
second  fortune  to  Madame  Melanie  there  was  rupture  complete 
between  them.  Hahnemann  does  not  seem  to  have  been  un- 
just to  his  daughters,  inasmuch  as  he  gave  them  a  very  large 
fortune  before  he  left  Germany.  Had  he  not  then  a  perfect  right 
to  give  to  his  French  wife  the  fortune  that  she  had  assisted  him 
to  earn  ?  It  is  certain  that  she  made  his  last  years  happy.  The 
only  thing  that  can  be  adduced  against  her  is  that  she  buried 
Hahnemann  almost  like  a  pauper;  that  she  refused  to  give  up  the 
manuscript  books  that  Hahnemann  had  willed  to  his  daughter  and 
that  she  exacted  an  exorbitant  price  for  the  sale  of  the  unpub- 
lished writings  left  at  his  death.  These  writings  are  yet  held 
by  Madame  Hahnemann's  heir,  Madame  Boenninghausen,  who 
refuses  them  to  the  profession. 


334  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 


CHAPTER  LXIV. 

DR.  PUHLMANN's  account  OF  HAHNEMANN'S  DAUGHTERS. 

An  article  was  published  in  the  Popidaire  Zeitschrift,  of 
Leipsic,  for  July  i,  1893,  entitled:*  "The  Semi- Centenary 
Memorial  of  the  Death  of  Dr.  Samuel  Hahnemann,  July  2,  1893." 
In  this  the  author,  Dr.  Puhlmann,  makes  plain  several  points 
heretofore  uncertain.  He  evidently  knows  whereof  he  writes. 
After  a  short  account  of  the  burial  he  gives  a  biography  of  the 
master,  a  fac  simile  of  a  letter,  portraits  of  himself  and  his  first 
wife  and  ends  the  very  entertaining  sketch  in  the  following 
manner:  "Glowing  accounts  of  Hahnemann's  material  pros- 
perity in  Paris  had  naturally  reached  the  ears  of  his  children, 
though  he  never  spoke  about  the  matter  in  his  letters  to  them  ; 
and  his  children  might  therefore  have  hoped  that  the}'-  would 
some  day  receive  a  second  inheritance  from  Paris.  So  their  dis- 
appointment was  the  more  bitter  after  his  death. 

In  an  indisputable  will  Samuel  Hahnemann  had  named  his 
second  wife  his  sole  heir,  and  in  this  will  he  expressly  says  that 
his  children  had  already  received  their  due  inheritance  in  his 
settling  upon  them  the  property  which  he  had  acquired  up  to 
1835  ;  so  that  people  cannot  now  impute  to  him  a  want  of  love 
for  them  on  account  of  this  act  of  gratitude  to  the  second  partner 
of  his  life. 

"The  contentions  of  the  Hahnemann  family  on  account  of 
this  will  have  lasted  for  many  years,  and  Frau  Melanie  Hahne- 
mann probably  insisted  upon  maintaining  her  rights  because  the 
children  and  their  friends  seemingly  attacked  her  only  and 
meddled  with  nothing  else.  In  fact  she  did  not  give  to  the  chil- 
dren her  deceased  husband's  journals,  which  he  had  left  behind 
in  Coethen,  with  the  express  understanding  that  they  were  to  be 
given  to  his  children  after  his  death. 

"For  the  sake  of  preserving  peace  in  the  Hahnemann  family, 
the  writer  of  this  article  prevented  this  matter  from  coming  to  a 
sensational  scandal  until  thirt}'-  years  afterwards. 

"The  Seminary  Director,   Franz  Albrecht,  of  Coethen,   had 

*Leipziger  Populaire  Zeitschrift  Jur  Homoopathie.  Leipsic,  July  i,  1893. 
Dr.  Willmar  Schwabe. 


DR.    PUHLMANN  S   ACCOUNT.  335 

published  in  1851  a  biography  of  Samuel  Hahnemann.*  The 
material  for  this  biography  had  been  given  to  him,  a  long-time 
neighbor  of  the  Hahnemanns,  by  the  deceased's  daughters, 
Frau  Dr.  Louise  Mossdorf  and  Charlotte  Hahnemann.  Albrecht, 
after  giving  up  the  seminary,  removed  to  Leipsic  and  settled  near 
the  publisher  of  this  Gazette,  so  as  to  expedite  the  publication  of 
a  new  and  enlarged  edition  of  this  biography,  which  appeared 
in  I S75  under  the  title  '  Dr.  Samuel  Hahnemann's  desBegrunders 
der  Homoopathie  I,eben  und  Wirken.  lycipzig.  Schwabe.    1875.' 

"Director  Albrecht  announced  that  Hahnemann's  daughter, 
Frau  Dr.  Mossdorf,  was  very  much  interested  in  the  publication 
of  this  new  edition  ;  and,  if  published,  she  offered  to  buy  for 
cash  five  hundred  copies.  Her  offer  was  accepted  and  the  print- 
ing was  begun.  But  the  printing  had  to  be  interrupted;  for  it 
was  found  that  Director  Albrecht,  at  the  instigation  of  Frau 
Mossdorf,  had  made  intercalations  in  the  former  edition  ;  and 
these  insertions  had  turned  the  book  into  a  sort  of  pamphlet 
against  Hahnemann's  widow,  who  was  still  living.  There  were 
inserted  in  the  book  numerous  attacks  upon  the  widow,  Madame 
d'Hervilly  Hahnemann,  and  also  various  private  letters  not 
meant  for  publication  ;  and  so  the  work  might  be  seized  by  order 
of  the  aggrieved  party,  and  thus  both  author  and  publisher 
might  get  into  litigation. 

"Director  Albrecht  was  aware  of  this  dilemma,  but  thought 
that  Madame  Mossdorf  would  not  be  likel}^  to  buy  five  hundred 
copies,  if  the  inserted  matter  were  omitted.  Five  signatures  of 
the  book  had  already  been  printed,  and  so  I  decided  to  have  a 
personal  interview  with  the  lady  about  the  matter,  for  I  was  ac- 
quainted with  her  and  I  believed  that  she  would  listen  to  any 
reasonable  remonstrances. 

"  I  had  been  at  the  Hahnemann  residence  during  the  lifetime 
of  her  sister  (before  1863)  and  had  been  received  with  unusual 
courtesy.  The  two  ladies  showed  me,  with  the  greatest  pleasure, 
all  the  mementoes  of  their  deceased  father.  On  my  departure  I 
even  received  from  them  a  small  glass  cylinder  that  had  belonged 
to  the  deceased,  some  leaves  from  the  arbor  in  the  small  garden, 
where  he  spent  so  many  of  his  leisure  hours,  and  a  goose  quill 
pen,  with  which  he  had  once  written.     This  quill-pen  had  no 

*  "  Christian  Friedrich  Samuel  Hahnemann.  Ein  biographisches  Denk- 
mal."     Leipzig.     Hinrichs'che  Buchhandlung.     1851. 


336  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

slit  in  the  nib,  and  I  could  then  readily  understand  how  Hahne- 
mann had  been  able  to  write  in  so  small  and  distinct  a  hand  on 
the  rough  paper  then  in  current  use,  and  on  which  we  could  not 
thus  write  with  our  steel  pens. 

"  Had  I  specially  requested  it  they  would  certainly  have  given 
me  also  a  tobacco  pipe  which  had  belonged  to  the  deceased.  But 
I  dared  not  ask  it,  considering  the  several  mementoes  they  had 
proffered  me  alieady. 

"  After  the  first  ludicrous  impression  made  upon  me  by  the 
profuse  manifestations  of  civility  shown  by  the  ladies  had  been 
superseded  by  a  graver  demeanor  on  my  part,  the  devil  tempted 
me  to  elicit  from  them  the  same  courtesies  again,  by  making  pro- 
found bows  to  them  and  giving  them  assurance  of  the  high 
esteem  in  which  I  held  them;  and  every  time,  to  my  great 
delight,  these  were  followed  on  their  part  by  courtesies  so  low  that 
one  might  have  thought  the  two  ladies  would  sink  into  the  earth. 
They  were  both  dressed  in  mourning,  and  they  repeated  these 
profound  courtesies  at  ever}^  bow  and  complimentary  phrase  from 
me,  till  I  was  at  length  really  embarrassed,  for  I  was  constrained 
to  preserve  a  grave  demeanor  and  dared  not  laugh. 

"  Charlotte  Hahnemann  had  died  before  I  called  on  Madame 
Mossdorf  to  have  this  personal  interview  respecting  the  objec- 
tionable matter  in  the  forthcoming  book.  She  received  me  at  her 
residence  in  Coethen  in  the  presence  of  a  servant  maid.  As  I 
entered  the  house  I  had  explained  to  this  servant  the  object  of 
my  visit  and  she  must  have  told  her  mistress.  After  the  formali- 
ties of  greeting  were  over,  which  were  profound  bows  on  my 
part  and  still  more  profound  courtesies  on  hers,  I  endeavored  to 
make  her  understand  that  so  censurable  a  work  could  not  be 
published,  even  though  she  believed  herself  to  be  in  the  right 
and  all  that  was  in  the  Albrecht  manuscript  should  be  true;  and 
I  said  to  her  that  most  unpleasant  relations  might  arise,  both  for 
author  and  publisher,  if  such  a  work  were  published. 

"But  she  was  not  to  be  persuaded  in  the  matter,  and  she  ad- 
vanced every  reason  and  argument  at  her  command  to  justify  her 
purpose.  I  heard  from  her  lips  things  much  worse  than  were  in 
the  Albrecht  manuscript.  I  had  to  leave  without  having  accom- 
plished the  object  of  my  visit,  and  my  bow  at  departure  was  not 
even  returned  by  her  by  even  the  merest  courtesy.  The  portions 
of  manuscript  already  in  type,  containing  expressions  of  feminine 


DR.    PUHLMANN  S    ACCOUNT.  337 

grudge  that  she  had  nursed  for  many  a  year,  were  laid  aside  and 
left  out  of  the  book. 

"  For  this  reason  the  lady  renounced  the  fulfilment  of  a  wish 
that  she  had  harbored  for  a  generation,  in  a  letter  written  to  Di- 
rector Albrecht  with  the  sharpest  expressions  of  ill  humor  she 
had  ever  uttered,  and  in  a  more  eflfusive  way,  too,  with  the  single 
exception  of  a  long-winded  dedication  that  she  had  once  furnished 
to  a  book. 

"She  has  now  been  dead  for  a  long  time,  and  Frau  Melanie 
Hahnemann  has  departed  this  life,  as  well  as  all  the  other  per- 
sons named  in  this  article.  Whatever  of  the  suppressed  portions 
of  the  Albrecht  manuscript  could  be  made  public  without 
wounding  the  feeling  of  reverence  for  the  great  founder  of  Hom- 
oeopathy, the  curious  reader  will  find  interwoven  in  this  article. 

"And,  as  was  stated  at  the  beginning,  this  article  was  meant 
to  be  not  a  portraiture  of  the  importance  of  Hahnemann  to  the 
mere  science  of  Homoeopathy,  but  of  his  life  and  works  viewed 
from  a  purely  human  standpoint  as  a  great  benefactor  to  the 
human  race. 

"And  yet  reflections  on  his  two  marriages,  and  especially 
upon  the  latter  portion  of  his  life  in  Paris,  were  not  to  be  dis- 
pensed with  because  many  erroneous  views  were  formerly  cur- 
rent respecting  this  matter  in  Homoeopathic  circles.  We  know 
for  certain  that  his  second  wife  took  him  to  her  native  land, 
rendered  more  beautiful  the  evening  of  his  life  and  assisted  him 
in  every  way  in  the  most  confiding  and  loving  manner,  till  the 
hour  of  his  death  ;  whilst,  had  she  been  heartless,  she  would  have 
left  him  to  himself  or  else  in  the  hands  of  nurses.  So  Jahr  re- 
lated of  her  that  when  Hahnemann  in  his  last  days  had  violent 
paroxysms  of  pain  in  his  breast  she  used  to  console  him  and 
cheer  him  up  and  say  to  him  that  Providence  owed  him  a  re- 
mission of  his  sufferings." 


338  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 


CHAPTER  LXV. 


HAHNEMANN  S    WILL. 


In  so  far  as  one  may  judge  at  this  late  day  regarding  the  mat- 
ter, it  seems  to  be  very  probable  that  Mile.  Hervilly  Gohier  did 
not  marry  Hahnemann  from  interested  motives.  She  had  money 
in  her  own  right,  she  was  of  an  excellent  family.  Doubtless, 
she  possessed  the  eccentricities  so  usual  to  genius,  and  under- 
standing this,  much  becomes  plain  in  her  actions.  That  she 
was  disinterested  may  be  inferred  by  the  fact  that  she  insisted 
upon  Hahnemann  making  a  will  before  his  departure  from  Ger- 
many and  giving  all  he  then  possessed  to  his  children,  although 
this  was  afterwards  used  as  an  argument  in  favor  of  her  cupidity. 
The  following  is  a  copy  of  this  document: 

HAHNEMANN'S    WILL. 

"In  the  name  of  God.  Amen.  Although  on  the  i6th 
September,  1834,  I  made  my  will  and  duly  deposited  it  with  the 
Ducal  Government,  and  although  likewise  for  the  purpose  of 
avoiding  every  kind  of  dispute  with  regard  to  my  property  among 
the  members  of  my  family  and  wishing  to  live  the  last  days  of 
my  life  in  undisturbed  peace  and  quiet,  I  divided  on  the  17th 
February  last  nearly  the  whole  of  my  fortune  amongst  the  chil- 
dren ;  yet  after  careful  consideration,  finding  that  those  very  dis- 
positions (which  in  some  respects  contradict  themselves)  might 
engender  mistakes  and  misunderstandings,  and  also  in  conse- 
quence of  my  contemplated  journey  to  Paris,  from  whence  it  is 
quite  impossible  to  saj'-  when,  if  ever,  I  shall  return  again,  my 
views  and  intentions  have  become  altered  on  some  points ;  there- 
fore I  herewith  cancel  and  annul  my  first  will  and  place  in  its 
stead  this  present  will  which  contains  all  my  wishes  regarding 
my  property  and  other  matters. 

"  I.  Before  all  I  commend  my  immortal  soul  to  the  grace  and 
mercy  of  God,  in  the  steadfast  belief  that  this  most  high  and 
potent  Guide  of  my  destinies  will  allow  it  to  participate  in  His 
heavenly  glory. 

"M}^  mortal  remains  shall  be  left  to  my  dearly  beloved  wife, 
who    alone  is  to  choose  the  place  of  interment  and  the  kind  of 


HAHNEMANN  S   WILL.  339 

funeral  according  to  her  choice,  unfettered  by  anyone;  but 
should  one  of  my  children  or  grandchildren  dare  to  interfere 
with  her  directions,  he  is  forthwith  to  be  punished  by  losing  one- 
half  his  whole  inheritance. 

"2.  My  whole  property,  consisting  of  ^9,000  cash ,  two  houses 
in  the  Wallstrasse  in  this  town,  some  articles  of  virtu  and  furni- 
ture, is  to  be  divided  in  equal  parts,  but  subject  to  certain  condi- 
tions hereafter  to  be  mentioned  among  the  members  of  my  family, 
as  well  as  all  the  children  who  may  arise  from  my  present  mar- 
riage. 

"3.  As  mentioned  above,  on  the  17th  February  I  disposed  of 
nearly  the  whole  of  my  property  by  a  deed  of  gift  to  my  children, 
giving  each  of  them  the  sum  of  ^900,  subject  to  certain  condi- 
tions specially  stated  in  the  aforesaid  document.  This  deed  of 
gift  is  to  remain  for  the  present  in  power  so  far  as  this  will  of 
mine  does  not  alter  it,  but  I  declare  herewith  most  emphatically 
that  with  the  view  not  to  bind  myself  by  it,  this  deed  has  not 
been  submitted  to  my  children  for  their  approval,  and  therefore 
has  no  binding  character  on  both  parties,  but  contains  only  my 
own  dispositions  of  my  property,  an  arrangement  which  I  have 
made  solely  for  the  purpose  of  affording  my  children  during  my 
lifetime  some  assistance.  It  is,  therefore,  not  irrevocable,  but 
can  at  any  time,  according  to  my  judgment,  be  altered  or  can- 
celled. 

"4.  Should  my  son  Frederick  be  incontestably  found  to  have 
•died  before  me,  then  his  daughter  is  to  be  placed  in  his  stead, 
and  should  she  have  died  childless  previous  to  my  decease,  then 
her  portion,  as  well  as  that  of  any  others  who  may  have  died 
without  issue  before  my  demise  is  to  fall  back  into  the  general 
estate. 

"5.  I  leave  as  a  special  legacy  to  my  two  youngest  daughters, 
Charlotte  and  Louise,  for  their  joint  use,  my  house,  270  Wall- 
strasse in  this  town,  free  of  all  debts  and  mortgages,  so  that 
they  may  take  possession  of  it  immediately  after  my  death.  Ivike- 
wise  I  bequeath  to  my  daughter  Amalie,  as  a  reward  for  her  con- 
stant filial  affection  and  devotion,  my  house,  269  Wallstrasse, 
in  this  city,  for  her  sole  and  absolute  use,  free  from  any  charge, 
■except  allowing  her  sister  Eleonora,  should  she  be  a  widow  and 
willing  to  live  in  Coethen,  the  use  of  a  room  in  the  said  house 
or  the  sum  of  twenty  thalers  instead,  according  to  the  choice  of 
the  legatee. 


340  I.IFE   OF   HAHNEMANN. 

"6.  The  golden  snuff-box  with  the  letter  F  in  brilliants,  which 
the  late  Duke  Ferdinand  presented  to  me,  I  hereby  bequeath  to 
my  absent  son  Frederick,  should  he  be  still  alive,  otherwise  his 
daughter  is  to  receive  it,  like  the  other  portions  of  her  father's- 
inheritance.  All  the  other  valuable  articles  and  moveables  be- 
longing to  me  have  already,  for  the  most  part,  been  divided 
among  my  children  during  my  lifetime  by  a  special  deed  of  gift. 
The  lists  containing  those  articles  which  each  of  my  heirs  has 
received,  or  is  to  receive,  are  all  signed  with  my  name,  and  are 
marked,  respectively,  A,  B,  C,  D,  F,  G,  H,  and  are  annexed  to. 
this  will. 

"7.  With  regard  to  the  house  which  I  bequeathed  to  my  two> 
youngest  daughters  I  have  particularly  to  state,  that  should 
one  of  them  die  before  me  the  other  one  is  at  once  to  take  posses- 
sion of  it.  If  both  are  alive  at  the  time  of  my  death  they  are  at 
liberty  to  dispose  of  all  their  legacies  according  to  their  own  free 
will. 

"8.  All  those  articles  of  my  property  which  have  not  been- 
mentioned  or  disposed  of,  either  in  this  will  or  in  the  annexed 
lists,  belong  to  the  general  estate  and  are  to  be  divided  equally 
among  my  heirs;  but  all  the  other  properties,  which  I  take  with 
me  to  Paris,  do  not  belong  to  the  general  estate  and  will  be  dis- 
posed of  hereafter. 

"9.  The  presents  and  dowries  which  some  of  my  children  have 
received  during  my  lifetime  are  not  to  be  brought  to  account. 

"  10.  All  notes  written  and  signed  by  my  own  hand,  with  my 
name,  which  may  be  found  after  my  death  among  my  papers, 
disposing  of  articles,  or  assigning  legacies  or  other  properties  to 
friends  of  mine,  are  to  be  considered  as  codicils  to  this  will  and 
are  equally  binding  on  my  heirs. 

"11. 1  trust  that  all  my  heirs  will  acknowledge  in  these  arrange- 
ments my  paternal  affection,  as  it  will  greatly  contribute  to  my 
comfort  during  the  last  days  of  my  life.  But  should  any  of  my 
family,  contrary  to  all  expectation,  not  be  satisfied  with  this 
my  last  will,  and  begin  an  action  at  law  about  it,  he  is  to  lose  at 
once  one-half  of  his  whole  inheritance. 

"12.  On  the  eve  of  my  departure  to  Paris,  where,  far 
away  from  the  country  in  which  I  had  to  suffer  so  much,  I 
probably  shall  remain,  and  where  I  hope  to  find  with  ray 
beloved  wife  that  peace  and  happiness  for  which  my  desired 


HAHNEMANN  S    W1I.L.  341 

marriage  will  be  a  sufficient  guarantee,  I  declare  that  I  have 
divided  nearly  the  whole  of  my  property  among  my  children 
soleh^  on  the  particular  wish  and  desire  of  my  wife,  which  is  a 
proof  of  her  nobl?  disinterestedness;  to  her  my  children  owe  it 
that  they  have  received  nearly  all  my  own  fortune,  which  I  have 
acquired  with  so  much  labor  and  exertion,  but  which  I  never 
could  quietly  enjoy.  I  have  only  reserved  for  myself  the  small 
■sum  of  ^2,000,  and  shall  take,  on  the  particular  wish  of  my 
Tvife,  only  my  linen,  wearing  apparel,  library,  medicines,  and  a 
few  valuable  articles,  as  watch  and  signet  ring,  with  me  to  Paris. 

"I  am  now  in  my  eighty-first  year,  and  naturally  desire  at  last 
to  rest  and  to  give  up  all  medical  practice,  which  is  at  present 
too  burdensome  to  me. 

"I,  therefore,  disclaim  all  intention  of  augmenting  my  fortune 
and  renounce  all  further  gain,  which,  after  having  amply  pro- 
vided for  my  family,  I  am  not  in  need  of.  Deeply  impressed 
with  gratitude  to  my  wife  for  all  the  happiness  she  has  conferred 
upon  me,  and  by  inducing  me  to  distribute  my  property  amongst 
my  children  (thus  securing  them  an  independent  existence),  for 
the  happiness  and  comfort  she  has  bestowed  upon  them  I  now  con- 
sider it  my  sacred  dut}^  to  take  care  that  the  future  peace  and  hap- 
piness of  this  most  amiable  wife  is  secured.  To  guard  her  against 
any  unjust  claims  which  might  be  made  by  members  of  my  nu- 
merous iamily,  a  proceeding  which  would  only  show  a  culpable 
malice  or  sordid  avarice,  I  order  that  she  is  to  keep,  without 
any  exception,  all  articles  which  I  take  with  me  to  Paris;  I 
forbid  that  seals  be  put  on  her  house  when  I  die,  or  that  inven- 
tories be  taken,  or  any  description  be  demanded;  in  short,  I 
■desire  that  my  wife  be  left  forever  undisturbed  by  my  family, 
who  have  no  claim  whatever  on  her,  but  who  should  rather  bless 
her  for  her  noble  disinterestedness.  But  if  there  should  be  one 
found  among  my  children  so  unworthy  as  to  dare  to  disturb  my 
beloved  wife  in  the  least,  he  is  to  lose  forthwith  one  half  of  his 
whole  inheritance;  and  if  all  my  heirs  be  disobedient  and  re- 
fractory, and  jointly  should,  contrary  to  my  orders,  molest  their 
stepmother  in  any  way  whatever,  then  one  and  all  are  to  lose 
the  half  of  their  inheritance.  In  such  a  case  I  request  the  Ducal 
Government  to  apply  these  fines,  according  to  their  choice,  for 
some  charitable  purpose. 

"13.  Should  my  present  wife  bear  me  any  children,  then  this 


342  LIFE    OF   HAHNEMANN. 

child  or  children,  as  a  matter  of  course,  have  the  same  claims  on 
my  property  as  the  children  of  my  first  marriage.  I^astly,  I 
request  my  Government  to  take  care  that  this  my  present  will 
be  faithfully  executed. 

"Given  under  my  hand  and  seal. 

"  Christian  Friedrich  Samuel  Hahnemann. 

"  Coethe7i,  2  June,  1835.'' 

The  lists  marked  A,  B.  C,  D,  F,  G,  H,  contain  the  enumera- 
tion of  the  movable  and  fixed  property.  In  list  G  he  gave  to 
his  youngest  daughter  Louise  the  books  containing  the  cases 
of  all  his  patients,  carefully  written  in  his  own  hand.  When 
Hahnemann  had  been  in  Paris  but  a  short  time,  having  gone 
into  active  practice  in  the  meanwhile,  he  felt  the  need  of  these 
books  and  asked  lyOuise  for  them  as  a  loan,  promising  solemnly 
that  they  should  be  returned  to  her  immediately  after  his  death. 

Although  applications  were  made  to  Madame  Hahneman  after 
that  event  for  their  return,  she  refused  to  surrender  them.* 


CHAPTER  LXVI. 

departure  for  PARIS — LETTER    BY  DR.  PESCHIER — PERMISSION 

TO  PRACTICE  GRANTED — HONORS  FROM  GALLICAN  HOM- 

ceOPATHIC  SOCIETY — ADDRESS  OF  HAHNEMANN. 

KRETZSCHMAR  ON  A  UNION  OF  HOMCEOPATHY 

AND    ALLOPATHY — HAHNEMANN'S 

ANSWER. 

And  now,  his  property  divided,  his  children  provided  for,  once 
more  this  old  wanderer  takes  up  his  household  gods.  Albrecht 
says  :t 

"Early  on  the  first  day  of  Whitsuntide,  1835,  he  departed 
from  Coethen  with  his  bride.  His  children  and  grandchildren 
accompanied  him  by  extra  post  as  far  as  Halle.  He  dined  at 
the  Crown  Prince  there,  and  then  immediately  resumed  his 
journey.  The  leave  taking  of  his  relatives  was  so  affecting 
that  even  strangers,  who  happened  to  be  spectators,  were  moved 

*  Brit   Jour.  //<7W.,  Vol.  xxii.,  p.  674.     Am.  Horn.  Review,   Vol.  v.,  p. 
476.     Allg.  horn.  Zeiiung,  Vol.  Ixix.,  p.  100. 
fAlbrecht's  "  L,ebeu  und  Wirkeu,"  p.  74. 


DEPARTURE    FOR    PARIS.  343 

with  the  profoundest  emotion.  His  daughters  returned  to 
Coethen  with  the  tears  coursing  down  their  cheeks  incessantly. 
Alas  !  they  had  lost  the  one  whom  they  had  called  their  father 
with  genuine  childish  aflfection,  and  honored  as  their  benefactor 
with  implicit  obedience,  and  had  cherished  as  their  idol  with 
most  self-sacrificing  devotion.  He  had  lived  in  the  Wallstrasse 
in  Coethen  for  fourteen  years,  in  a  house  of  his  own  with  a 
garden  attached,  and  his  youngest  daughter  now  occupies  this 
dwelling." 

The  following  note  may  be  found  in  the  Allgemeirie  horn. 
Ze  if  ung-  for  July  13,  1835:  "Dr.  S.  Hahnemann  on  the  14th  of 
June  last  departed  for  Paris." 

In  this  place  an  extract  from  a  letter  written  to  Stapf  six  years, 
before,  in  1829,  may  be  interesting  :*  "I  thank  you  most  cor- 
dially for  your  kind  invitation  to  come  to  Naumburg.  I  must 
take  it  as  already  having  been  done.  I  cannot  now  travel  a  mile 
from  home,  if  I  am  to  live  a  year  longer.  I  must  observe 
punctually  my  regular  mode  of  life,  and  dare  not  swerve  from  it 
a  single  hair's  breadth.  Travelling  has  therefore  become  im- 
possible for  me  ;  I  cannot  visit  even  my  married  children,  cannot 
even  get  the  length  of  lycipzic.  So  forgive  me  that  I  must  refuse 
3'our  invitation." 

But  the  charming  invalid  and  artist  from  Paris  made  him  for- 
get his  old  age. 

It  has  been  said  that  Hahnemann  was  compelled  to  leave 
Coethen  secretly  on  account  of  the  great  affection  in  which  he 
was  held  by  the  inhabitants,  who  did  not  wish  him  to  leave  them 
and  sought  to  restrain  him  by  force.  This  is  all  false  ;  many  of 
his  fellow-townsmen  accompanied  him  for  a  short  distance  on  his 
road,  t  Hahnemann  and  his  bride  travelled  toward  Paris  as 
father  and  son,  the  lady  again  assuming  her  masculine  attire.f 
They  reached  Paris  the  last  of  June  or  the  first  week  in  July, 
and  at  once  settled  in  a  house  situated  near  the  Garden  of  the 
Luxembourg.  ||  He  did  not  reside  long  in  this  comparatively 
small  house,  but  soon  removed  to  a  larger  and  more  elegant 
mansion  at  No.  i  Rue  de  Milan. 

*Honi.    fFor/rf,  Vol.  xxiv.,  p.  502. 
t  "  Leben  und  Wirken,"  p.  74. 
X Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  xxxvi.,  p.  301. 
\\Brit.  Jour.  Hom.^  Vol.  xxii.,  p.  678. 


344  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

In  a  letter  dated  Paris,  Jiil}^  13,  1835,*  Dr.  Peschier  says: 
"Thanks  to  God,  our  venerable  Master  Hahnemann  has  ar- 
rived safe  and  sound.  *  *  *  j  remember  my  former  intro- 
duction in  the  country,  when  he  received  me  in  a  manner  so 
affecting,  so  paternal;  I  know  not  how  to  describe  the  feelings 
of  pleasure  and  of  respect  that  conference  produced.  How  much 
soul  and  goodness  his  countenance  expressed.  He  seems  happy 
in  his  determination  to  come  to  France;  his  marriage  has  in  all 
ways  proven  a  happy  one;  his  young  wife  is  prodigal  in  the  most 
intelligent,  assiduous  and  tender  attention  to  his  wants.  How 
is  it  possible  to  spread  unworthy  calumny  about  such  a  noble 
character.  He  thus  replied  to  an  Allopath  who  had  approached 
him  filled  with  spleen:  'Sir,  I  am  come  to  Paris  to  rest  myself 
and  to  see  what  I  will  do  next.' 

"He  has  decided  to  remain  here  to  labor  for  Homoeopathy. 
He  wishes  to  found  a  dispensary  by  voluntary  subscription  for 
those  natives  of  France  who  desire  the  Homoeppathic  treatment. 
If  each  Homoeopathic  physician  would  interest  himself  no  doubt 
the  necessary  amount  could  be  raised.  The  Homoeopathic  Society 
of  Paris  paid  Hahnemann  an  honorary  visit.  He  afterwards 
addressed  them.  He  recommends  the  study  of  the  German 
language  in  order  that  they  may  the  better  understand  the  prin- 
ciples of  our  science,  and  may  trace  to  their  sources  the  experi- 
ments  regarding    the   therapeutic    employment    of  remedies." 

Peschier  also  mentions  his  love  for  France  and  his  wish  to 
spread  Homoeopathy  there  as  the  reason  for  his  arrival;  of  his 
painstaking  in  prescribing;  of  his  trust  and  faith  in  God  and  his 
desire  to  worthily  employ  his  talents  to  further  his  method  of 
healing;  he  mentions  Hahnemann's  announcement  to  the  French 
physicians  that  he  would  devote  two  hours  one  day  in  the  week 
to  answering  all  the  questions  that  they  might  wish  to  ask  him 
about  Homoeopathy. 

Madame  Hahnemann  at  once  set  about  obtaining  for  her  hus- 
band the  right  to  practice  in  Paris,  and  through  her  influence 
with  M.  Guizot,  the  Minister  at  that  time,  she  soon  succeeded. 
Albrecht  says:t  '' "^^^^  General  Gazette  of  Prussia  publishes  the 
following  report,  October  12,  1835:   "By  a  Royal  edict  of  August 

**'  Bibliotheque  Homoeopatbique,"  Vol.  v.,  p.  320. 
t  Albrecht's  "  Lebeu  aud  Wirken,"  p.  77. 


DEPARTURE    FOR    PARIS.  ,         345 

21,*  permission  to  practice  medicine  is  given  to  Dr.  Hahnemann, 
who  has  resided  in  Paris  for  several  months." 

Le  Temps,  of  Paris,  contains  the  following  article  in  relation 
to  the  report:  "  At  last  the  Homoeopathists  have  to  a  certain 
extent  won  their  process.  After  permission  was  denied  them  to 
dispense  their  own  medicines,  as  well  as  to  open  a  special  clinic, 
they  have  brought  their  old  Master  to  Paris;  and  in  doing  this 
the  wishes  of  Madame  Hahnemann,  herself,  have  been  of  ad- 
mirable service.  He  allowed  himself  to  be  patiently  led  by  his 
wife,  and  exchanged  Coethen  for  Paris. 

"  Hahnemann  has  found  some  zealous  pupils  in  Paris;  and 
others  from  the  Provinces  and  from  Kngland  have  hastened 
hither  to  see,  admire  and  honor  their  Master.  This  man  has 
already  presided  at  one  public  convention  and  now  a  second  is 
announced,  at  which  the  patriarch  can  be  seen  very  conveniently. 
In  order  to  practice  his  healing  art  in  Paris  Hahnemann  needed 
permission  from  the  Government.  This  has  now  been  courte- 
ously granted  to  him  through  the  intercession  of  M.  Guizot.  No 
one  need  wonder  at  this,  for  Dr.  Hahnemann  is  as  good  a  doc- 
trinaire as  M.  Guizot.  Hahnemann's  doctrine  consists  in  pre- 
scribing to  his  patients  medicaments  in  as  small  doses  as  the 
Mininisterial  doctrijiaire  dispenses  freedom  to  the  country.  It 
is  said  to  be  difficult  to  gain  access  to  Dr.  Hahnemann,  and  that 
he  is  accessible  only  through  his  wife.  It  is  also  said  that  he  sells 
his  advice  very  dear,  asking  ten  louis  d' or  for  each  consultation. 
It  is  obvious  that  opposing  forces  are  in  contact  with  each  other 
in  this  healing  method  also." 

On  the  15th,  i6th,  17th  of  September,  1835,  there  was  a  meet- 
ing of  the  Gallican  Homoeopathic  Society  for  the  purpose  of  ex- 
tending to  Hahnemann  a  welcome  to  Paris,  and  to  show  the 
great  esteem  in  which  he  was  held.f  On  the  15th  a  deputation 
waited  upon  Hahnemann  and  his  wife  and  invited  them  to  be 
present  at  a  public  reunion  of  the  society. 

Hahnemann,  who  had  been  elected  honorary  president,  was 
introduced,  and  took  his  place  upon  the  platform.  M.  Simon 
then  read  Hahnemann's  opening  address,  which  was  as  follows : 

"I  am  come  into  France  for  the  propagation  of  Homoeopathy, 
and  I  am  most  happy  to  meet  so  many  of  you. 

*In    "  The  British  and  Foreign  Medical  Directory"   by  George   Atkin, 
1853,  this  date  is  given  as  August  31, 
i;Hygea,  Vol.  iii.,  p  277,  379. 


346  LIFE   OF  HAHNEMANN. 

"In  the  name  of  all  Homoeopaths,  I  thank  the  Government  of 
France  for  the  liberty  it  has  accorded  to  our  meetings  and  our 
work.  I  hope  to  increase  the  numbers  of  those  who  will  prove 
the  excellence  of  our  art,  and  who  then  will  grant  us  the  means 
to  practice  it  successfully  for  the  greater  benefit  of  humanity. 

"In  a  document  which  I  will  shortly  prepare,  I  will  speak  to 
the  public  concerning  Homoeopathy,  that  malevolence  and  errors 
have  prevented  them  from  perfectly  understanding.  I  will  speak 
of  what  a  Homoeopathist  must  be  and  what  powers  he  must  exer- 
cise in  the  practice  of  an  art  so  beneficent. 

"I  will  only  acknowledge  as  disciples  those  who  practice  pure 
Homoeopathy,  and  give  medicine  absolutely  free  from  the 
powerful  mixtures  employed  b}'  the  old  school  of  medicine.  In 
the  name  of  my  long-continued  experience,  I  affirm  that  the 
public  will  not  give  its  trust  until  the  zealous  disciples  of  my 
doctrine  who  hear  entirely  renounce  that  medical  homicide. 

"My  long  and  successful  practice,  attested  by  my  records, 
which  I  offer  in  evidence,  prove  that  pure  Homoeopathy  practiced 
by  those  who  have  studied  deeply  and  who  exactly  understand 
it,  suffices  alone  for  all  the  wants  of  suffering  hutDanit3\ 

"I  thank  the  Gallican  Society  for  their  labors.  I  see  with 
great  pleasure  among  its  members  industrious  and  zealous 
men  who  will  continue  that  which  they  have  so  happily  com- 
menced. 

"I  am  deeply  affected  by  the  proofs  of  attachment  which  I 
have  received  from  all  the  members  composing  it.  I  will  unite 
with  the  zeal  which  animates  them  and  I  will  second  their  ef- 
forts for  the  propagation  of  our  divine  art ;  because  age  which 
has  never  diminished  its  march,  has  not  chilled  my  heart,  nor 
enfeebled  my  mind,  and  Homoeopathy  will  always  be  to  me  an 
adoration. 

"As  to  the  Society  of  Paris,  if  it  has  hitherto,  with  some  ex- 
ceptions which  I  shall  be  pleased  to  understand,  been  slow  to 
wish  for  a  more  profound  instruction  in  our  art,  it  is  without 
doubt  on  account  of  the  newness  of  the  appearance  of  Homoeo- 
pathy in  Paris.  In  exhorting  the  members  of  that  society  to  an 
indispensable  redoublement  of  study,  I  will  observe  to  them,  and 
to  you  also,  that  to  them  who  practice  the  art  of  saving  life, 
to  neglect  to  understand  is  a  crime. 

"Surely  am  I  convinced  that  this  reproach   cannot  longer  be 


ADDRESS    TO    FRENCH    SOCIETY.  347 

advanced;  because,  animated  as  you  all  are  with  the  love  of 
humanity,  you  will  neglect  nothing  to  attain  the  end  that  we 
propose  for  ourselves,  and  which  you  will  certainly  obtain  if,  as 
I  deeply  wish,  you  remain  united  in  heart  and  principles. 

"And  you,  studious  young  Frenchmen,  that  the  old  errors 
may  no  longer  encompass  you,  and  that  your  search  after  truth 
may  be  no  longer  difficult,  come  to  me,  for  I  will  impart  to  you 
that  truth  much  sought  for,  that  divine  revelation  of  a  principle 
of  eternal  nature.  It  is  to  existing  facts  that  I  appeal  to  con- 
vince you;  but  these  facts  do  not  expect  to  acquire  except  by 
means  of  conscientious  study,  and  success  will  be  complete 
and  assured;  then,  like  myself,  you  will  bless  Providence  for  the 
immense  benefaction  that  it  has  permitted  to  descend  upon  earth 
by  my  humble  interposition,  fori  have  been  nothing  but  a  feeble 
instrument  of  that  Majesty  before  which  all  should  humiliate 
themselves."* 

This  address  was  greeted  with  much  enthusiasm.  Afterwards 
Dr.  Pierre  Dufresne  delivered  the  presidential  address,  and  the 
the  regular  business  of  the  society  was  transacted. 

The  "  Societe  Gallicane "  was  organized  in  1832;  it  was  a 
National  Society  and  held  meetings  in  different  cities.  The  first 
two  sessions  were  held  in  Geneva,  the  third  at  L,yons,  the  last, 
in  1835,  at  Paris.  No  more  meetings  were  held.  Hahnemann's 
title  of  President  d'Honneure  then  bestowed  was  continued  dur- 
ing his  life,  and  always  when  he  was  present  at  a  meeting  he 
took  the  chair.  After  his  death  this  title  was  conferred  on  Dr. 
Quin  of  England. t 

After  the  session  on  September  17  was  ended  a  banquet,  at 
which  all  the  members  of  the  society  were  present,  was  given, 
and  which  Hahnemann  honored  with  his  own  presence.  Among 
the  toasts  given  was  the  following:  "  To  the  speedy  union  of  Al- 
lopaths and  Homoeopaths. "  "AT  union  prochaine  des  Allopathes 
et  des  Homeopathes,  a  la  justice  que  les  premiers  ne  tarderont 
pas  a  rendreanos  efforts  constans  par  activer  les  progres  de  I'art 
de  guerir."     {Bibl.  Horn.,  Vol.  vi.,  p.  25.) 

About  this  time  Dr.  Kretzschmar,  a  Homoeopathic  physician, 
published  in  a  French  Homoeopathic  journal  an  article  entitled: 

*  Bibliotheque  Hotnceopathique,  Paris,  1835,  Vol.  vi.,  p.  29.  Allgemeine 
horn.  Zeitung,  Vol.  viii.,  p.  178. 

t  "  Anuals  of  Brit.  Horn.  Society,"  Vol.  i.,  Report  2. 


348  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

"Is  an  alliance  possible  between  HomcEopathy  and  Allopathy?"^ 

In  this  he  maintained  that  under  certain  circumstances  it  was 
wise  and  even  necessary  to  use  auxiliaries  such  as  leeches, 
sinapisms,  and  even  bleeding,  in  connection  with  the  Hom- 
oeopathic remedies.  He  says  :  "  Is  this  Allopathizing?  No,  it 
is  having  recourse  to  palliatives  in  cases  of  necessity.  Borrowing 
from  the  old  school  some  harmless  palliatives  is  not  Allopathiz- 
ing; and  whilst  considering  such  borrowing  useful  and  necessary 
I  have  no  hesitation  in  affirming  that  there  is  no  alliance  possible 
between  Allopathy  and  Homoeopathy y 

Hahnemann,  in  the  Bibliotheque  Homceopathique  of  the  same 
year  (1835),  answered  the  article,  and  as  this  answer  very  dis- 
tinctly .states  his  opinion  at  this  time  on  the  subject  of  palliatives 
and  accessory  treatment,  it  is  here  given  in  full.f 

"I  invite  all  my  true  disciples  to  publish  their  opinions  on  the 
article  of  Dr.  Kretzschmar,  and  I  shall  set  them  an  example. 

"The  employment  of  mixtures  of  medicines,  an  association, 
the  inconvenience  of  which  is  felt  even  by  persons  unconnected 
with  the  profession,  is  not  the  only  motive  which  should  make 
us  reject  Allopathy,  seeing  that  it  feels  no  hesitation  in  oppress- 
ing life,  oftentimes  irreparably,  by  means  of  a  single  medicine, 
for  instance  Calomel. 

"It  also  deserves  this  fate,  in  consequence  of  the  other  pro- 
cesses by  which  it  exhausts  the  strength  and  the  humors  of  the 
diseased  body,  by  means  either  of  blood  letting,  of  sudorifics, 
hot  baths,  etnetics  and  purgatives  or  painful  processes,  as  caute- 
ries, vesicatories,  sinapisms,  acupuncture,  moxa,  etc.,  processes 
which  all  debilitate  beyond  belief  the  vital  force,  the  energy  of 
which,  combined  with  the  action  of  a  well-selected  remedy,  can 
alone  effect  a  cure. 

' '  Homoeopathy  alone  knows  and  teaches  that  the  cure  is  to 
be  effected  only  by  means  of  the  entire  force  still  existing  in  the 
patient,  when  a  medicine  perfectly  Homoeopathic  to  the  present 
case  of  disease,  and  administered  in  the  proper  dose,  causes  this 
force  to  exert  its  curative  activity. 

"One  of  the  most  inestimable  advantages  of  Homoeopathy  is 
to  husband  as  much  as  possible  this  vital  force,  which  is  indis- 

*  Archives  de  la  Medicine  Homceopathique,  Paris,  1835,  Vol.  ii.,  p.  177. 
t"  Etudes  de  Medicine  Homceopathique,"  Hartuug,  Paris,  1850,  p.  266. 
Horn    Times,  Loudon,  Vol.  i.,  p.  249. 


ANSWER    TO    KRETZSCHMAR.  349  * 

pensable  to  the  cure  in  the  course  of  treatment.  It  is  this  which 
places  it  above  all  the  Allopathic  methods.  It  alone  then  avoids 
all  those  means  ruinous  to  life,  which  are  never  necessary  and 
constantl}'  adverse  to  the  end  aimed. 

"  That  Homceopathist  must  know  very  little  of  his  profession, 
he  must  be  very  incapable  of  selecting  remedies  and  of  employing 
them  properly,  not  to  know,  without  thus  mismanaging  his 
patients,  how  to  cure  them  in  a  manner  infinitely  more  sure, 
more  prompt  and  more  perfect  than  the  most  noted  physicians  of 
the  old  school. 

"For  the  last  forty  years  I  have  not  let  one  drop  of  blood,  nor 
applied  rubefacients  or  vesicatories,  nor  practiced  cauterization 
nor  acupuncture.  I  have  never  exhausted  my  patients'  strength 
by  hot  baths;  I  have  never  abstracted  from  them  their  best  vital 
juices  by  sudorifics;  I  have  never  had  occasion  to  scour  out  their 
body  and  ruin  their  digestive  organs  by  emetics  and  purgatives; 
and  yet  I  have  cured  with  so  much  success,  even  under  the  eyes 
of  my  enemies,  who  would  not  have  failed  to  show  up  the  least 
false  step,  that  public  confidence  brings  me  patients  of  all 
classes,  from  the  nearest  as  well  as  the  most  remote  countries. 

"  My  conscience  is  clear;  it  bears  testimony  to  me  that  I  have 
sought  the  good  of  suffering  humanity;  that  I  have  always  done 
and  taught  what  appeared  to  me  to  be  best,  and  that  I  have 
never  had  recourse  to  Allopathic  processes,  to  indulge  my  patients 
and  not  to  drive  them  from  me;  I  love  my  fellow-creatures  too 
well  and  the  repose  of  my  conscience  to  act  so. 

"Those  who  will  imitate  me,  as  I  act  on  the  verge  of  the  grave, 
will  be  able,  like  me,  to  await  with  calm  confidence  the  moment 
of  reposing  their  head  in  the  bosom  of  the  earth,  to  yield  up 
their  soul  to  a  God  whose  omnipotence  must  make  the  wicked 
man  tremble  in  his  heart." 


350  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 


CHAPTER  IvXVII. 

PRACTICE   IN   PARIS — RED-LETTER   FETE   DAYS — TREATMENT   OF 

THE   DUKE   OF   ANGLESEY — PRESENTATION   OF  MEDAL 

BY    FRENCH    PHYSICIANS. 

Hahnemann  now  not  only  saw  patients  at  his  home  but  made 
regular  professional  visits,  a  thing  he  had  not  done  for  some 
3'ears  in  Coethen. 

His  life  was  one  of  very  great  activity.  From  the  cloister- 
like stillness  of  the  quiet  house  in  Coethen,  where  he  only  went 
out  to  visit  his  royal  patient,  to  the  din  and  excitement  of  a 
fashionable  practice  in  the  gayest  city  in  the  world.  What  a 
change!  And  not  alone  his  practice;  every  year  of  his  life  in 
Paris  had  its  red-letter  day,  in  which  the  old  scholar  was  hon- 
ored by  his  disciples. 

His  birthday,  the  anniversary  of  his  graduation  so  many  years 
ago  in  the  fatherland — in  fact,  any  day  that  could  serve  as  an 
excuse  for  testifying  to  the  universal  reverence  in  which  he  was 
held.  His  ante  rooms  were  constantly  crowded  with  people. 
He  was  visited  by  his  disciples  from  distant  parts  of  the  world. 
He  did  not  write  any  more  books  after  he  came  to  Paris;  he 
revised  and  published  the  second  edition  of  the  "  Chronic 
Diseases,"  and,  it  is  said,  revised  and  prepared  the  manuscript 
for  a  sixth  edition  of  the  "Organon,"  which  has  as  yet  never 
been  published. 

But  he  had  already  fully  explained  his  discovery  and  plainly 
laid  down  rules  for  its  successful  practice.  It  seems  fitting  that 
in  the  last  brilliant  years  of  the  Paris  life  the  Master  should 
enjoy  somev/hat  of  that  luxury  that  had  before  been  denied  him. 
If,  as  Hahnemann  says  in  his  will,  he  came  to  Paris  to  rest  and 
not  to  practice,  then  was  fate  too  powerful  for  him;  for  never  before 
had  his  practice  been  so  large.  This  fact  has  been  urged  against 
the  disinterestedness  of  Madame  Hahnemann;  that  she  knew 
could  she  but  get  the  old  man  to  Paris  she  could  make  of  him  a 
gold  producer,  and  that  this  promise  of  rest  she  never  desired 
nor  intended  to  fulfill. 

Might  it  not,  however,  be  nearer  the  truth,  that  after  Hahne- 
mann  had  been  for  a  short  time  in  Paris,  had  appreciated  the 


PRACTICE    IN    PARIS.  35 1 

eagerness  with  which  people  desired  his  services,  and  had  rather 
tired  of  a  life  of  comparative  idleness,  that  it  was  by  his  own 
wish  that  he  again  entered  active  practice  ?  Is  it  not,  when  we 
look  at  the  whole  previous  life  of  the  man,  more  probable  that 
he  really  was  happier  in  leading  the  gay  and  active  life  he  did 
in  Paris  than  if  he  had  indeed  sat  down  to  the  slippered  ease  of 
old  age. 

Soon  after  his  establishment  Dr.  Peschier  published  the  fol- 
lowing article  in  volume  six  of  the  Bibliotheque  Homoeopathique 
for  1835: 

"The  Master  has  finally  reached  Paris,  but  he  has  not  come 
like  many  distinguished  men  of  the  past  and  present  to  make  a 
display  or  advance  the  celebrity  of  his  name.  Hahnemann, 
conducted  by  his  French  spouse,  of  the  noblest  French  and 
Parisian,  has  come  to  the  capital  to  obtain  rest  from  his  immense 
practical  labors  and  to  live  as  inconspicuously  as  possible,  and 
to  quietly  conclude  a  scientific  production  written  by  himself  in 
French  and  destined  to  present  his  doctrine  in  a  light  best 
adapted  to  the  genius  and  spirit  of  the  French  people.  Homoe- 
opathy, as  a  medical  doctrine,  has  been  for  a  num'ber  of  years 
the  object  of  numerous  attacks;  the  Homoeopathists  themselves 
have  discussed  the  theory  of  its  author,  have  rejected  certain 
peculiarities,  and  have  substituted  difierent  ideas.  Hahnemann 
has  not  yet  taken  the  trouble  to  answer  these  different  critics, 
and  has  allowed  their  objections  to  accumulate;  it  is  now  pre- 
sumed that  he  will  discuss  these  cavillings  and  will  dedicate  his 
energies  to  the  creation  of  a  work  in  which  he  will  arrange  his 
reflections  anew,  and  will  present  an  argumentative  array  of  tes- 
timony perfectly  ample  to  silence  unjust  or  incompetent  criticism. 

"I  have  stated  that  Hahnemann  desired  to  remain  incon- 
spicuous; in  confirmation  it  is  true  that  he  took  such  precau- 
tions that  his  most  faithful  Parisian  disciples,  those  who  would 
have  esteemed  it  the  highest  pleasure  to  have  welcomed  him, 
were  ignorant  of  his  arrival  for  a  fortnight  or  more. 

"He  selected  a  residence  out  of  the  way;  he  made  no  visits; 
he  even  denied  himself  his  wonted  and  necessary  exercise,  but  a 
renown  like  his  own  traverses  distance  and  penetrates  walls.  In 
brief  time  his  dwelling  has  become  known,  and  at  this  moment 
his  portal,  as  in  Germany,  is  besieged  by  the  multitudes  who 
esteem  health  as  the  first  of  human  blessings. 


352  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

"But  a  faithful  guardian  watches  over  him  night  and  day,  his 
wife,  who  will  not  allow  the  precious  moments  and  days  to  be 
scattered  and  wasted  for  the  interest  of  individuals;  consultations 
are  not  indistinctly  allowed,  and  in  the  audiences  that  are  de- 
manded Hahnemann  well  knows  what  is  due  the  scientific 
world,  and  the  time  required  for  labor  of  his  head  and  his  pen 
must  not  be  given  to  private  consultations. 

"  We  are  glad  to  be  able  to  say  that  the  illustrious  old  man 
enjoys  the  happiness  very  rarely  granted  to  men  and  especially  to 
savants,  in  that  he  relishes  the  many  delights  and  gifts  of  life  at 
an  age  that  is  usually  only  marked  by  infirmities  and  privations. 
Hahnemann  is  in  full  possession  of  his  senses,  and  his  intellect- 
ual faculties  were  never  clearer  at  any  time  in  his  life;  his 
health,  perfect  in  all  points,  is  a  most  convincing  proof  of  the 
benefits  of  the  Homoeopathic  regimen  followed  by  him;  at  eighty 
years  of  age  he  possesses  all  the  bodily  vigor  desirable,  and  does 
not  feel  the  Slightest  discomfort.  He  is  the  object  of  the  greatest 
solicitude  and  attention  from  his  new  wife,  and  we  do  not  hesi- 
tate to  say  regarding  this  lady  that  it  is  a  veritable  adoration 
filling  her  whole  life.  Hahnemann  is  for  her  more  than  man, 
she  worships  him;  we  cannot  express  this  sentiment  by  any 
other  expression;  she  consecrates  to  him  every  moment  of  her 
life;  she  never  leaves  him;  she  is  his  shadow;  she  has  become 
his  alter  ego.  Gifted  in  a  very  great  degree,  speaking  fluently 
many  languages,  among  them  German,  she  formerly  occupied 
herself  with  poetry,  she  paints  in  oil  with  rare  talent  (she  has 
executed  a  portrait  of  the  great  man  bearing  the  most  exact 
resemblance),*  she  now  applies  all  the  force  of  her  mind  to  the 
study  of  Homoeopathy,  and  possessed  of  a  most  excellent  memory 
she  is  able  to  narrate  promptlj'^  to  the  learned  physician  the 
symptoms  recorded  in  the  Materia  Medica  corresponding  to  the 
diseases.  She  has  become  capable  of  tabulating  morbid  symp- 
toms with  great  exactitude;  in  the  same  manner  that  she  has  be- 
come the  hand  of  Hahnemann  has  she  also  become  his  head. 

"Knowing  all  this,  one  can  readily  understand  this  admirable 
woman.  She  receives  the  respect  of  all  the  Homoeopaths.  On 
one  formal  occasion  when  they  were  received  by  the  master  she 
extended  her  regards  to  all  the  enthusiastic  disciples,  the  adorers, 

*An  engraving  from  this  was  published  in  Dudgeon's  translation  of  the 
"Organon,"  London,  1847. 


PRACTICE   IN   PARIS.  353 

SO  to  Speak,  she  regards  them  all  as  friends.  It  is  difficult  to 
describe  the  grace  with  which  she  did  the  honors  at  a  fete  given 
to  Hahnemann  by  the  Homoeopaths  residing  in  Paris.  Hahne- 
mann received  his  friends  with  great  courtesy,  and  she  had  a 
kindly  word  of  welcome  for  every  one.  *  *  *  Hahnemann 
will  not  return  to  Coethen."* 

During  the  year  1835,  among  other  distinguished  patients, 
Hahnemann  treated  and  cured  the  I^ord  Paget,  Marquis  of 
Anglesey,  of  facial  neuralgia.  The  account  appeared  in  the 
New  York  Albion  in  1848.  Dr.  John  T.  Temple  published  it  in 
his  Homoeopathic  journal  and  saysrf  "To  ascertain  the  ac- 
curacy of  this  account  we  applied  to  Dr.  Hull,  editor  of  the  Hom- 
oeopathic Examiner,  who,  while  in  England,  acquired  a  personal 
knowledge  of  the  fact,  and  he  has  obligingly  favored  me  with  the 
following  memorandum: 

"  'It  cannot  fail  to  give  unfeigned  pleasure  to  learn  that  the 
Marquis  of  Anglesey  has  fully  recovered  from  the  dreadful  tic- 
douloureux  with  which  he  has  for  so  many  years  been  afflicted. 
The  malady  appeared  soon  after  this  gallant  nobleman  submitted 
to  amputation  of  the  leg,  which  was  shattered  in  the  battle  of 
Waterloo,  and  assumed  after  a  few  years  the  most  aggravated 
form  of  prosopalgia  Fothergilii,  affecting  the  right  side  of  the 
face.  The  cure  was  effected  by  the  celebrated  author  of  Homoeo- 
pathy, Hahnemann.  The  Marquis  applied  to  this  venerable 
physician  in  1835,  at  the  instigation  of  his  medical  attendant, 
Dr.  Dunsford,  of  I^ondon,  after  having  tried  the  ordinary  methods 
under  the  ablest  masters  in  Europe  for  sixteen  years.  The  par- 
oxysms for  a  long  time  previous  to  the  application  of  the  Ho- 
moeopathic method  had  recurred  at  intervals  of  from  six  to  ten 
minutes  only,  night  and  day,  and  had  reduced  the  brave  old 
nobleman  to  a  mere  wreck  of  his  former  self.  The  Marquis  has 
had  no  relapse  whatever  since  the  cure,  which  occupied  a  few 
months, , and  has  enjoyed  uninterrupted  health  for  nearly  five 
years,  having  wholly  recovered  his  flesh,  strength  and  constitu- 
tional vigor.'  " 

Dr.  Wm.  Tod  Helmuth  also  alludes  to  this  wonderful  cure.  % 

* Bibliotheque  Homaopathique,  1836,  Vol.  vi  ,  p.  118.  Hygea.,  Vol.  iii.,' 
P-  392. 

^Southwestern  Horn.  Journal  and  Review ,  St.  Louis,  1848,  Vol.  i.,  p.  81. 
%N.  Am.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  xix.,  p.  534. 


354  l.l'PE   OF   HAHNEMANN. 

Stoequeler,  in  his  "Life  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington,"  says: 
"The  gallant  Anglesey  precedes  the  Life  Guards,  a  cannon  shot 
takes  off  his  leg."  He  afterwards  became  Lord  Lieutenant  of 
Ireland. 

The  year  1836  was  memorable  by  reason  of  the  presentation 
by  the  French  Homoeopathic  physicians  of  a  medal  to  Hahne- 
mann. In  the  Allgemehie  Zeitung,  Vol.  ix.,  appears  the  fol- 
lowing:* "The  French  Homoeopathic  physicians  have  honored 
Hahnemann  and  expressed  their  pleasure  at  his  settling  among 
them  by  presenting  him  with  a  medal  on  which  is  his  bust. 
This  they  did  in  deputation,  waiting  upon  him  for  the  purpose." 
This  item  or  account  appears  in  a  letter  written  to  the  German 
journal,  dated  Paris,  July  15,  1836. 

Albrecht  says:  "Among  the  almost  innumerable  proofs  that 
Hahnemann  and  his  wife,  who  most  zealously  aided  him  in  his 
medicinal  and  medical  endeavors,  quite  to  as  great  an  extent  as 
he  had  been  accustomed  to  have  it  done  by  his  daughter,  suc- 
ceeded perfectly  in  subduing  and  captivating  the  hearts  of  the 
French  people,  it  is  to  be  mentioned  that  the  Homoeopathic  phy- 
sicians living  m  France  had  a  medal  struck  containing  Hahne- 
mann's bust,  in  order  to  honor  him  and  to  thank  him  for  settling 
in  their  Fatherland.  This  medal  was  presented  to  him  by  a  depu- 
tation about  the  middle  of  1836. 

"In  France,  also,  the  loth  of  August  was  also  celebrated  as  a 
holiday  by  the  adherents,  friends  and  reverers  of  Homoeopathy. 
The  springs  of  enthusiasm  welled  up  more  and  more  copiously  on 
these  occasions. 

"Two  French  poems,  which  were  veritable  masterpieces  of 
their  kind,  demonstrated  clearly  that  the  enthusiasm  reached 
a  singularly  high  pitch. 

"Only  upon  Napoleon  have  we  read  odes,  which  breathe  equal 
heartiness  and  truthfulness  of  feeling  and  warmth  of  ardor." 

Hahnemann  still  remembered  Germany,  and  in  a  letter  to 
Stapf,  from  Paris,  in  1836,  again  alludes  to  the  hospital  contro- 
versy of  1833:!  "Many  thanks  for  sending  me  the  first  volume 
of  your  'Contributions  to  the  Pure  Materia  Medica.'  I  value 
them  highly;  and  also  for  the  third  part  of  the  fifteenth  volume 


*  Allg.  horn.  ZeiL,  Vol.  ix.,  p.  112  (August  i,  1836). 
t  Albrecht's  "  Leben  uud  Wirken,"  p.  78. 
%Honi.  World,  Vol.  xxvi.,  p.  116. 


PRACTICE   IN   PARIS.  355 

of  your  Archiv,  which  gives  promise  of  a  reaction  against  the 
sansculottism  of  the  superlatively  clever  perverters  of  our  ex- 
perience-proved HomcEopathy.  I  never  cared  to  engage  in 
polemics.  If  I  once  broke  my  resolution  (when  I  attempted  in 
vain  to  set  Dr.  Kretzschmar  right),  I  am  determined  never  to  do 
so  again. 

"My  disciples  will  perform  this  duty  instead  of  me,  if  they 
have  any  regard  for  the  propagation  of  our  divine  art  and  for 
their  own  honor.  No  defensive  article  is  needed  for  me.  I  only 
beg  the  shameless,  ignorant  assailants  of  the  present  day  to  bear 
in  mind  the  experinientium  corucis,  that  they  should  prove  their 
own  qualifications  to  speak  on  the  subject  of  Homoeopathy  by 
their  deeds — real  quick,  frequent  cases  of  serious  diseases.  Mere 
arguing,  contemptuous  utterances  and  faultfinding  with  the 
better  method  and  arrogant  presumption  are  no  qualifications. 
I  trust  that  the  best  of  my  followers  will  put  them  to  shame  and 
by  degrees  overcome  them. 

"Your  additions  to  Anacardium,  etc.,  which  you  kindly  com- 
municated to  me,  have  been  utilized  by  me  for,  and  incorporated 
into,  the  second  edition  of  the  'Chronic  Diseases,'  as  you  no 
doubt  have  seen  in  the  second  part  of  that  edition. 

"In  respect  to  that  also  the  inimical  spirit  of  Trinks  has  been 
very  evident.  It  must  have  been  by  his  devilish  interference 
that  Arnold  let  my  manuscript  lie  so  long  unprinted.  It  was 
only  after  an  innumerable  quantity  of  worrying  letters  and 
threats  of  legal  prosecution  that,  after  two  whole  years,  I  got 
him  to  go  to  press;  but  he  only  printed  the  first  two  parts  (alto- 
gether thirty  six  sheets). 

"Then  Arnold  became  bankrupt;  he  could  not  continue  the 
publication,  and  Trinks's  devilish  object,  to  hinder  the  appear- 
ance of  the  work,  was  attained.  However,  it  will  soon  see  the 
light  through  another  publisher.  I  believe  it  will  be  a  profitable 
undertaking. 

"I  live  here  with  my  dear  wife,  healthy,  happy  and  honored, 
and  shall  be  always  delighted  to  hear  good  news  of  the  well- 
being  of  yourself  and  amiable  family. 

"  Your  friend, 

"Sam.  Hahnemann. 

''^  Paris,  November  i^,  1S36. 

"I  return  you  the  AUentown  Correspojidenzblatt  with  thanks. 


356  LIFE   OF    HAHNEMANN. 

There  I  have  zealous,  pure  followers.  Soon  they  will  surpass 
Germany. 

"  If  our  Gross  has  not  put  his  name  along  with  the  rest  to  the 
Magdeburg  declaration  of  the  loth  of  August,  then  you  may  re- 
member me  kindly  to  him." 

The  second  edition  of  the  "Chronic  Diseases,"  Vols.  I.  and 
II.  was  published  in  1835,  by  Schaub,  at  Dusseldorf ;  the  third 
volume  in  1S37;  the  fourth  in  1838;  the  fifth  in  1839.  But  two 
editions  were  ever  published  in  the  German. 


CHAPTER  LXVIII. 

DR.  DETWILIvER'S    VISIT  TO    HAHNEMANN — HAHNEMANN    TO 
DR.    HERING. 

In  1836  Dr.  Henry  Detwiller  visited  Hahnemann  in  order  to 
interest  him  in  the  welfare  of  the  then  newly  opened  Allentown 
Academy  of  Medicine. 

He  held  several  interviews  with  him  and  a  reception  was 
held  at  Hahnemann's  house  in  regard  to  the  matter,  but  nothing 
was  done  to  aid  the  Institution.* 

At  a  banquet  tendered  the  Homoeopathic  Medical  Society  of 
Pennsylvania,  at  Easton,  September  8,  1880,  the  venerable  Dr. 
Henry  Detwiller,  then  eighty-five  years  of  age,  made  the  follow- 
ing after  dinner  speech  concerning  his  visit  to  Hahnemann  :  f 

"Now  past  forty- four  years  I  sailed  to  Europe,  entrusted  my 
practice  to  the  care  of  Dr.  N.  Wohlfart,  a  Homoeopath,  and  my 
family  in  the  charge  of  my  brother,  then  in  the  village  of  Heller- 
town,  twelve  miles  from  here.  My  main  object  was  to  interview 
Dr.  S.  Hahnemann  in  Paris,  Professor  Schoenlein  in  Zurich,  and 
Professor  Werber  in  Freyburg,  in  the  interest  of  the  Allentown 
Academy  of  the  Homoeopathic  Healing  Art. 

"Dr.  Hahnemann  and  lady  received  me  with  marked  kind- 
ness, and  he  was  very  much  surprised  at  our  enterprise  in 
establishing  an  Institute  to  teach  Homoeopathy,  more  so  when  I 
told  him  that  Dr.  C.  Hering  was  the  pivot  of  the  enterprise.     I 

*"Traus.  World's  Horn.  Conveution,"  1876,  Vol.  ii.,  p.  783. 

fThe  compiler  is  indebted  to  Dr.  J.  C.  Guernse}'  for  the  use  of  the  origi- 
nal manuscript  in  Dr.  Detwiller's  handwriliug,  of  which  the  above  is  a 
copy. 


DR.   DETWILLER  S    VISIT    TO    HAHNEMANN.  357 

solicited  his  advice  if  it  were  probable  to  obtain  material  aid 
amongst  the  friends  in  Europe  in  subscribing  stock,  to  which  he 
answered  that  he  would  take  the  matter  in  due  consideration, 
and  held  forth  the  hope  to  do  something  till  my  next  visit. 

"On  my  next  visit,  in  October,  1836,  he  stated  his  inability 
to  obtain,  or  to  give  himself,  pecuniary  aid,  but  he  would  send  us 
his  life-size  marble  statue  then  just  in  course  of  sculpture  by  the 
famous  sculptor  David,  in  Paris.  He  kept  his  word,  but  by 
shipwreck  the  statue  was  lost.  On  my  departure  he  implored 
God's  blessing  to  our  enterprise,  and  madanie,  with  a  parting 
kiss,  joined  with  the  imploration  that  the  good  work  begun 
might  prosper  and  spread  like  the  Christian  religion  all  over  the 
world.     The  result  you  all  know." 

Among  the  very  interesting  collection  of  Hahnemann's  letters, 
translated  by  the  indefatigable  Dr.  R.  B.  Dudgeon,  is  one  writ- 
ten to  our  own  Dr.  Hering  soon  after  the  arrival  of  the  Master 
in  Paris:* 
"To  Dr.  Hering. 

"  Truest  and  most  Zealous  Propagator  of  our  Art! — An  adverse 
fate  has  apparently  caused  to  be  lost  and  not  allowed  to  reach 
you  my  two  letters  to  you;  the  first,  thanking  you  for  electing 
me  honorary  president  of  the  Hahnemann  Society  of  Philadelphia, 
and  for  sending  me  a  diploma;  the  second,  giving  a  detailed  ac- 
count of  my  disagreeable  relations  with  the  German  Homoeopaths. 
The  first  was  sent  by  the  Prussian  Post  Office  in  Hamburg,  the 
second  by  the  Homoeopath  in  Bremerlehe.  I  am  now  very  much 
nearer  to  you  on  account  of  the  sure  and  regular  communication 
from  this  place  through  Havre. 

"I  am  in  Paris,  and  may  settle  here.  My  incomparable  second 
wife,  a  model  of  science,  art,  industry,  with  the  noblest  heart 
and  intellect,  and  filled  with  unspeakable  love  for  myself,  from 
her  youth  honored  and  valued  by  the  most  highly  esteemed 
people  here,  Marie  Melanie  d'Hervilly,  makes  what  remains  to 
me  of  life  a  heaven  upon  earth,  since  the  i8th  January,  1835,  in 
Coethen,  and  since  the  25th  June,  1835,  in  Paris.  She  is  already 
so  skillful  in  our  divine  healing  art,  and  such  a  zealous  student 
of  it,  that  she  has  already  effected  a  number  of  splendid  cures  of 
the  most  difficult  chronic  diseases  among  the  poor.     All  this  has 

*  Horn.  World,  Vol.  xxvi.,  p.  74.      "  Aunals  Brit.  Horn.  Society,"  Vol.  iv. 
p.  172. 


358  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

made  me  at  heart  ten  years  younger,  and  for  forty  years  I  have 
not  enjoyed  such  unalloyed  health  as  since  then.  My  Melanie 
anticipates  all  my  wishes  and  needs,  without  waiting  for  a  hint 
from  me — she  is  an  angel  in  human  form  ! 

"I  have  met  here  a  number  of  so-called  Homoeopaths;  they 
indeed  confidently  call  themselves  so,  but  are  and  continue  to  be 
mostly  charlatans.  But  among  the  others  in  the  provinces,  of 
whom  there  is  a  considerable  number,  there  are  many  good 
ones.  The  better  Homoeopathic  school  at  Geneva  wanted  to  per- 
suade me  to  endeavor  to  convert  those  here  by  means  of  stirring 
appeals  and  controversial  writings.  But  I  never  had  any  inclina- 
tion for  that  sort  of  thing,  and  never  shall  have.  I  chose  to  act 
in  another  way.  I  cured,  which  of  course  they  couldn't  do,  a 
number  of  very  highly  distinguished  persons  of  the  most  serious 
diseases,  which  not  only  gained  me  immense  renown  (which  is 
very  remarkable  in  so  short  a  time  in  this  immense  city),  but 
which  also  put  a  stop  to  the  persecution  of  the  influential  half- 
Homoeopaths  here  who  pursued  me  with  scorn  and  calumny,  and 
stirred  up  the  honest  converts  to  study  our  art  in  a  genuine  and 
thorough  manner.  Every  Monday  evening  I  invite  the  better 
sort  to  assemble  in  my  beautiful  drawing-room  adorned  with  the 
finest  collection  of  pictures,  and  I  hold  friendly  converse  with 
them  on  the  most  important  points  on  which  they  need  instruc- 
tion, for  I  now  speak  French  pretty  fluently — which  it  was 
rather  difficult  for  me  to  learn  at  my  advanced  age.  All  this 
shocked  and  silenced  the  Royal  Academy  of  Medicine,  who, 
before  I  came  here,  had  pronounced  a  sentence  of  excommunica- 
tion against  Homoeopathy  in  a  decree  intended  as  an  answer  to  a 
letter  addressed  to  them  by  M.  Guizot,  the  Minister  of  Public 
Instruction,  in  which  he  asks  them  whether  hospitals  and  schools 
for  Homoeopathy  should  not  be  instituted.  This  ancient  body, 
composed  of  so-called  committees  of  Allopaths,  will  eventually 
cut  but  a  sorry  figure  in  the  history  of  medicine.  They  are 
almost  without  exception  the  most  barbarous  bleeders  and  leech- 
appliers.  They  do,  teach,  and  know  nothing  else.  Broussais' 
false  teaching  has  for  the  last  twenty  years  turned  them  into 
shameless  murderers;  whilst  Broussais  himself  is  now  beginning 
to  repudiate  his  own  doctrine  and  to  incline  to  Homoeopathy. 
In  establishing  his  frightful  blood-letting  method  he  completely 
destroyed   the    whole   system    of  drug-prescribing,   so  that   the 


HAHNEMANN    TO    DR.    BERING.  359 

apothecaries  here  have  a  wretched  part  to  play.  The  1,300 
French  Allopaths  here  give  their  patients,  instead  of  medicine, 
nothing  but  a  solution  of  gum  Arabic,  called  eau  de  gotnme,  and 
subject  them  to  a  starvation  diet.  This  will  eventually  prove 
very  advantageous  to  Homoeopathy. 

"  TheGriesselich  schism,  which  has  already  spread  extensively 
in  Germany,  has  taken  root  here  too.  Everything  that  can 
prostitute  the  practice  of  the  most  difficult  of  all  human  arts, 
encourage  caprice,  avarice,  and  laziness,  and  destroy  love  for 
one's  fellow- creatures,  is  attributable  to  this  false  doctrine.  Such 
a  wicked  perversion  of  our  holy  doctrine  was  unavoidable  among 
the  baser  sort  of  men;  it  is  full  of  attractions  for  them. 

"But  the  day  will  come  when  a  discerning  posterity  shall 
regard  it  with  contempt — parturiuntmontes  nascetur  ridiculus  mus — 
the  boasted  effect,  the  real  cure  of  serious  diseases,  does  not  take 
place.  Hence  I  have  never  troubled  myself  about  it.  Bragging, 
boasting,  promising  grand  things  may  for  a  while  excite  atten- 
tion and  gain  adherents  in  many  of  the  so-called  arts  (as  formerly 
in  the  art  of  making  gold),  but  in  the  healing  art  all  this  avails 
nought;  here  cures  must  be  made.  The  public  rightly  demands 
facta,  and  that  is  just  what  Griesselichism  cannot  give. 

"I  have  made  some  improvements  in  the  technicalities  of  our 
art,  which  I  will  uo^n  first  communicate  to  you.  Before  Aegidi's 
suggestion  I  was  in  the  habit  of  giving  the  globule  or  globules 
dissolved  in  water,  so  that  the  patient  might  take  them  or  it  in 
divided  portions.  Now,  as  my  medicines  are  very  powerful,  I 
dissolve  seldom  more  than  one  globule  in  7,  15,  20,  30  table- 
spoonfuls  of  water,  and,  because  the  patient  has  no  distilled 
water  (which,  besides,  after  a  few  days  becomes  spoilt  and  fer-. 
ments),  I  employ  spring  or  river  water  for  this  purpose,  mixed 
with  i-i5th  or  i-2oth  part  of  spirits  of  wine,  or  I  put  three  or 
four  small  pieces  of  hard  wood  charcoal  into  the  solution.  This 
mixture,  of  which  the  patient  affected  with  a  chronic  malady 
takes  a  tablespoonful  every  day  or  every  other  day,  or  i,  2  or  3 
teaspoonfuls,  is  to  be  shaken  in  the  bottle  five  or  six  times  every 
time  a  dose  is  taken,  in  order  to  change  the  degree  of  dynamiza- 
tion  each  time.  The  effect  of  this  is  that  the  vital  force  of  the 
patient  assimilates  the  remedy  more  kindly.  When  the  patient 
has  taken  all  the  mixture,  and  the  same  medicine  seems  still  to 
be  required,  I  never  repeat  it  in  the  same  potency,  but  always  in 


360  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

another,  generally  a  lower  potency.*  Thus,  for  instance,  I  have 
often  been  able  to  administer  Sidphur  daily  for  months  at  a  time 
with  the  most  astonishingly  good  effects.  And  so  also  all  other 
well-indicated  medicines,  as  long  as  they  continued  to  do  good. 
But  as  there  are  some  maladies  which  require  more  energetic 
action  than  can  be  obtained  by  internal  administration  or  by 
olfaction — e.  g.,  remains  of  apparently  cured  cutaneous  disease, 
unattended  by  morbid  sensations,  or  old  malignant  affections  of 
another  kind,  either  external  or  internal  —  I  use  the  same 
medicinal  solution,  which  was  prepared  for  internal  administra- 
tion and  which  proved  most  useful  when  so  given,  for  external 
friction  on  a  considerable  surface  of  the  skin  where  it  appears  to 
be  most  healthy.  A  half  or  a  whole  tablespoonful  at  a  time  is  to 
be  rubbed  on  an  apparently  healthy  arm,  leg  or  thigh  by  the 
patient  himself  or  by  a  friendly  powerful  person,  until  the  wetted 
hand  becomes  dry.  It  is  inconceivable  how  much  more  one  can 
do  by  this  method.  But  this  medicinal  fluid  must  also  be  suc- 
cussed  five  or  six  times  before  each  application. 

"So  much  for  this  time.  Probably  you  yourself  have  already 
adopted  this  plan  in  the  case  of  old,  obstinate  diseases. 

"I  do  not  know  or  learn  much  in  my  present  circumstances,  as 
I  have  very  little  time  left  for  reading. 

"I  am  very  pleased  to  hear  about  your  fine  Institution,  your 
Homoeopathic  Academy  in  AUentown.  Already  you  beat  every- 
thing we  can  show  in  Europe  in  that  way.  Your  Correspondenz- 
Bldtter,  nine  of  which  you  have  kindly  sent  me,  are  very  practi- 
cal, and  written  in  an  excellent  spirit.  But  be  very  careful  that 
your  colleagues  write  good  German.  Aphoristic  brevity  has  its 
limits;  it  will  not  do  to  leave  out  the  necessary  articles  nor  yet 
the  prepositions.  That  the  Academy  is  German  in  its  origin 
and  should  so  remain  is  a  patriotic  arrangement  and  is  of  ad- 
vantage to  the  art,  for  it  came  from  heaven  on  German  soil  and 
may  reckon  on  getting  further  additions  from  thence,  when  the 
unseemly  follies  which  at  present  deform  it,  and  which  have 

*  [Hahnemauu  here  means  by  lower,  a  less  (not  as  formerly  a  more) 
diluted  preparation,  as  we  find  on  reference  to  his  latest  directions  for  re- 
peating the  medicine  in  the  third  part  of  the  second  edition  of  his  Chronic 
Diseases,  published  the  following  year.  Indeed,  the  directions  given  in  this 
letter  are  a  mere  abridgment  of  what  he  says  in  that  part  of  the  work 
referred  to.  A  translation  of  these  final  technical  changes  in  Hahnemann's 
practice  will  be  found  in  Dudgeon's  edition  of  the  Organon,  p.  295,  note.] 


HAHNEMANN    TO    DR.    HERING.  36 1 

their  origin  in  impudence,  ignorance,  vanity  and  laziness,  shall 
be  exposed  in  all  their  nakedness  and  emptiness. 

' '  I  thank  you  for  the  Rhiis  vernix  and  Cistus  ca7iadensis  you 
sent  me.  I  will  endeavor  to  prove  them.  But  I  would  more 
partiailarly  request  you  to  send  me  the  third  trituration  of  Lachesis 
and  Crotalus,  for  the  knowledge  of  which  we  are  indebted  to 
America  and  to  you.  How  much  have  we  not  to  thank  you  for 
besides! 

"It  is  a  great  grief  to  me  that  I  cannot  get  the  remaining  third 
and  fourth  parts  of  the  second  edition  of  my  Chronic  Diseases 
published.  Arnold  (probably  instigated  by  Trinks)  made  me 
wait  two  long  years  for  the  first  two  parts;  and  then  he  could  go 
no  further,  being  impoverished  by  his  own  fault,  and  so  he  gave 
up  the  further  publication.  Must  I,  in  the  82d  year  of  my  age, 
go  begging  for  a  publisher?  I,udwig  Schumann  refused  it  on  ac- 
count of  want  of  means.  I  doubt  if  Kohler,  in  I,eipsic,  will  accept 
it.  I  have  a  large  amount  of  valuable  emendations  and  addi- 
tions in  manuscript.  I  trust  you  will  get  a  capable  man  for  your 
hospital,  who,  when  he  visits  his  patients,  will  collect  the  students 
around  him,  and  dictate  the  examination  of  the  patients  to  a 
clerk  in  their  presence,  and  the  changes  observed  at  subsequent 
visits,  and  give  a  lecture  of  an  hour  or  two  upon  them.  Do  not 
make  post-mortem  examinations  of  the  bodies  of  Allopathic 
patients  in  order  to  obtain  pathological  preparations  from  them, 
for  they  can  only  furnish  the  results  of  medicinal  mistreatments. 
The  autopsies  of  persons  who  have  died  of  natural  diseases  with 
hardly  any  medical  interference  can  alone  be  instructive.  The 
time  of  the  students  should  not  be  wasted  with  anatomical 
subtleties,  nor  should  botany  or  chemistry  be  carried  too  far.  Sit 
modus  in  rebus  !  Schonlein's  views — which,  as  I  gather  from  your 
Blatter,  are  excellent — might,  as  you  think  so  highly  of  them  (I 
am  not  acquainted  with  them),  be  advantageously  taught  in  your 
Academy.  Do  not  fear  any  rival  English  institute;  there  are  as 
yet  no  English  translations  of  the  chief  works.  To  what  works, 
then,  could  they  refer  their  students? 

"I  have,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  received  no  letter  from  you  except 
your  first  one.  Our  good  God  will  certainly  bless  your  great 
undertaking.     I  know  Him! 

"May  you  continue  to  enjoy  the  best  of  health,  for  the  advan- 
tage of  mankind,  and  may  your  dear  family  also  prosper!    I  and 


362  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

my  beloved  wife  send  you  our  kindest  regards,  and  I  beg  to  be 
remembered  to  all  your  fellow-workers. 

' '  Samuel  Hahnemann. 

*' Paris,  Rue  de  Mila?i,  October  j,  i8j6." 

It  has  been  said  that  Dr.  Hering  never  saw  Hahnemann. 
This  is  not  true.  It  is  well  known  that  Hering  in  the  year  1820 
was  at  Leipsic  engaged  in  study.  Dr.  C.  G.  Raue  says  that  he 
has  often  heard  Hering  speak  of  seeing  Hahnemann  with  his  wife 
and  daughters  upon  the  promenade  at  Leipsic,  his  favorite  walk. 
But,  as  Hering  at  this  time  was  an  Allopathic  student,  he  never 
spoke  to  Hahnemann,  and  although  they  were  always  friends 
they  never  actually  met. 


CHAPTER  LXIX. 

LIFE  IN   PARIS — STORY  TOLD    BY  A  FORMER    PATIENT  OF  HAHNE- 
MANN— CORRESPONDENCE   BETWEEN   DR.   BALOGH 
AND    THE    HAHNEMANNS. 

The  following  account  of  Hahnemann  appeared  in  the  Allge- 
tneine  hoj7i.  Zeitu7ig  for  November  20,  1837:* 

"Dr.  Samuel  Hahnemann  in  Paris." 
"Under  this  heading  in  the  Germa7i  Genej-al  Gazette  of 
Friday,  October  6th,  1837,  ^  writer  who  signs  himself  'Bn' 
gives  to  Homoeopathic  physicians  a  very  welcome  account  of 
this  distinguished  man,  to  whom  we  are  indebted  for  so  much 
that  is  great  and  important  in  the  practice  of  medicine.  The 
editor  deems  it  a  duty  to  impart  to  the  readers  everything  hav- 
ing reference  to  Hahnemann,  so  much  the  more  because  they 
even  then  receive  in  Germany  so  little  information  about  the 
founder  of  Homoeopathy;  and  he  therefore  believes  that  he  com- 
mits no  mistake  in  admitting  into  the  Gazette  information  about 
him  which  has  already  been  published  but  has  not  been  noticed 
by  all  its  readers. 

"  Hahnemann  lives  at  No.  i  Rue  de  Milan.  The  place  is 
beautiful  and  the  surroundings  agreeable,  just  as  he  always 
liked  them  to  be.     His  external  appearance  has  remained  almost 

*AUg.  horn.  Zeitung,  Vol.  xii.,  p.  120  (Nov.  20,  1837).  Volksblatter  fur 
horn.  Heilverfahren.   Wahrhold.  Vol.  iii.,  p.  202. 


LIFE   IN   PARIS.  363 

the  same  as  formerly,  neither  Paris  nor  old  age  having  left  any 
perceptible  impress  upon  him;  and  it  is  to  be  presumed  that  his 
mental  and  bodily  activity  will  be  maintained  at  its  unusual 
strength  and  vitality  for  an  uncommonly  long  period. 

"  It  may  be  difficult  to  decide  whether  his  audience  of  office 
patients  is  as  large  as  some  assert,  who  regret  that  his  advanced 
age  must  succumb  to  impracticable  exertions,  or  whether  we 
may  believe  a  less  enthusiastic  portion  of  the  people,  who  main- 
tain that  he  has  a  select  circle  of  patients  and  from  among  the 
higher  ranks;  but  this  much  is  certain  that  the  ante-room  to  his 
office  is  always  filled  and  that  a  newcomer  has  to  wait  for  hours 
until  it  is  his  turn  to  be  admitted. 

"Hahnemann  never  curtails  that  thorough  examination  of 
the  patient  so  earnestly  recommended  by  himself,  and  each  one 
thus  takes  up  more  time  than  is  the  case  in  the  offices  of  other 
physicians.  It  is  noticeable  that  he  now  also  visits  patients  in 
the  city.  He  formerly  was  but  little  inclined  to  make  such  vis- 
itations. A  regard  for  his  health,  which  might  be  slightly 
endangered  by  constant  sitting,  ought  to  have  determined  him 
to  take  such  exercise. 

"  The  magnitude  of  this  recognition  on  the  part  of  the  public 
is  not  real,  however,  if  it  depends  on  an  estimation  of  its  scien- 
tific standpoint  in  general,  and  of  its  relations  to  the  Homoeo- 
pathic medical  public  in  particular.  It  is  relatively  of  the 
greatest  importance  for  the  contending  and  disputing  parties  and 
tendencies  respectively  in  Homoeopath}^  that  the  author  does 
not  seem  at  all  disposed  to  lend  an  open  ear  to  the  additional 
facts  and  instructions  proffered  to  him,  with  more  or  less  discre- 
tion, or  for  a  long  period,  by  the  adherents  of  his  doctrines.  He 
knows  how  to  cling  resolutely  to  the  truth,  not  only  of  his  gen- 
erally received  fundamental  tenets,  but  also  to  the  rejection  of 
the  old  pathology,  and  especially  nosology  (a  characteristic 
feature  of  the  Hahnemannian  practice);  in  a  word,  he  will  know 
how  to  protect  against  the  common  methods  of  treating  disease, 
and  especially  against  every  beginning  in  accordance  with  the 
old  school. 

"This  is  not  the  place,  nor  is  it  my  design,  to  criticise  the 
different  parties  in  Homoeopathy,  and  therefore  we  must  pass 
over  the  importance  of  the  reasons  which  make  him  the  greatest 
scientific  reformer  known  to  history.     But  it  may  be  permitted 


364  LIFE   OF    HAHNEMANN. 

to  State  here  that  the  question  is  far  from  being  settled  by  the 
common  so-called  scientific  arguments  of  which  Homoeopathic 
literature  begins  to  receive  a  superabundance  and  also  that  in 
the  eager  but  not  therefore  unscientific  pursuit  of  Hahnemannic 
tenets  the  way  is  opened  to  a  research  not  as  yet  anticipated, 
and  absolutely  incalculable  in  its  results.  Unfortunately  this 
party  has  now  but  one  representative  of  importance  in  Hahne- 
mann himself,  though  Boenninghausen  may  possibly  be  added 
to  the  number.  (If  the  laity  in  medicine  are  to  be  counted  among 
the  representatives  of  this  party,  then  there  are  many  more  of 
them. — Ed.)  At  all  events  this  small  number  of  professionals  is 
to  be  deplored,  and  can  be  explained  only  by  the  defective  dis- 
cernment of  physicians  with  respect  to  the  vast  importance  of 
the  matter,  and  by  the  very  great  difficulty  in  the  practice  of 
this  profession.     (May  not  these  be  the  real  reasons? — Ed.) 

"  Hahnemann's  eager  zeal  for  his  cause  and  strenuous  opposi- 
tion to  his  enemies  are  still  the  same  as  formerly.     *     *     * 

"The  continuation  of  Hahnemann's  '  Chronic  Diseases '  fur- 
nishes a  proof  of  his  enduring  activity  in  the  aim  which  he  has 
so  long  pursued.  (Third  volume,  second  edition.)  This  work 
is  carefully  executed  in  his  own  hand-writing  and  with  minute 
industry.  A  mere  glance  at  the  volume  (third)  last  published 
will  suffice  to  convince  one  of  the  careful  and  thoroughly  sys- 
tematic elaboration  of  the  material  and  of  the  critical  aim. 

"  It  would  bean  important  loss  to  mankind,  although  many 
seem  to  be  unwilling  to  acknowledge  it,  if  Hahnemann  should 
be  prevented  from  completing  this  highly  important  work,  a 
second  revised  edition  of  which  is  now  in  course  of  publication. 

"The  completion  of  a  plan  already  promising  to  be  successful 
would  be  of  the  greatest  consequence  to  Hahnemann's  doctrine. 
This  plan  is  the  erection  in  Paris  of  a  vast  hospital  which  is  to 
be  under  his  supervision  and  direction,  and  to  have  its  physi- 
cians appointed  by  himself. 

"  Herein  would  be  found  the  opportunity  to  verify  on  a  large 
scale  what  is  isolatedly  reported  from  so  many  directions  about 
the  brilliant  results  of  Homoeopathy.  Whatever  might  be  the 
result,  science  could  only  be  won  over  by  such  an  enterprise, 
and  every  physician  seeking  the  truth,  of  whatever  school  he 
may  be,  must  heartily  wish  the  speedy  promotion  of  this  plan. 
— Bn.  " 


LIFE    IN    PARIS.  365 

The  following  is  an  account  of  his  treatment  of  a  patient  in 
1837: 

Under  the  title  of  "A  Reminiscence  of  Hahnemann,"  an  ac- 
count is  given  in  the  Medical  Advance,  for  April,  1S93,  of  the 
presentation  of  a  patient  of  Hahnemann  to  the  students  of  the 
Hering  Medical  College  of  Chicago,  February  23,  1893.  The 
name  of  this  gentleman  is  John  B.  Young,  of  Clinton,  Iowa. 
He  was  taken  from  Paisley  in  Scotland  to  Paris,  and  was  placed 
under  Hahnemann's  care  when  he  was  twelve  years  of  age. 

He  had  previously  been  ill  for  two  years,  and  had  been  given 
up  by  his  physicians,  when  a  charitable  lady  took  him  to  Paris 
by  short  stages. 

"You  went  from  lyondon  to  Paris?" 

"  Yes,  I  went  from  London  to  Paris." 

"When  you  arriv'ed  in  Paris,  did  you  go  to  see  Hahnemann, 
or  did  Hahnemann  come  to  see  you?" 

'  "He   came   to  see  me  the  second  day  after  my  arrival,  and 
gave  me  an  examination  that  lasted  about  an  hour  and  a  half." 

"Did  he  strip  you?" 

"Yes,  I  had  to  go  to  bed.  He  went  over  me  more  thoroughly 
than  I  have  ever  been  gone  over  before  or  since." 

"Dr.  Allen.  'And  still  it  is  said  that  Hahnemann  was  a 
symptomatologist  and  usually  prescribed  for  symptoms ;  and 
rarely  made  a  physical  examination.'  " 

"Mr.  Young.  He  would  make  me  count  one,  two,  three, 
etc.,  up  to  one  hundred,  and  put  an  instrument  to  my  chest  and 
did  the  same  to  my  back,  and  he  did  more  thumping  of  my  chest 
than  I  ever  had  before."  *  >i<  >k  ^  >lc 

"  He  said  ho:  knew  that  I  had  come  to  him  in  time  and  he 
could  cure  me.  " 

"  Did  he  give  you  very  much  medicine?" 

"Not  a  very  great  deal.  I  think  I  had  medicine  about  four 
times  a  day  at  first,  including  what  I  got  at  night." 

"What  was  your  impression  of  Hahnemann?" 

"  The  first  impression  made  on  my  mind  when  I  saw  him  was 
that  his  face  had  a  luminous  expression.  He  looked  more  to  me, 
as  I  would  call  it,  a  divine  man — there  was  divinity  about  his 
appearance.  He  was  a  good  man  undoubtedly,  and  I  was 
informed  that  he  often  when  he  gave  his  medicine  said  to  his 
patients  that  he  was  but  the  instrument,  that  he  did  the  best  he 
could  and  then  they  must  look  to  God  for  the  blessing." 


366  LIFE   OF    HAHNEMANN. 

"  At  that  time  were  there  many  patients  visiting  Hahnemann 
at  his  office,  and  what  was  the  size  of  his  office  ?" 

"  He  had  a  very  large  room,  and  when  I  was  there  he  had 
some  two  hours  that  he  met  'counsel  patients.'  There  were 
generally  sixty  or  more  patients  at  any  time  in  his  office  when  I 
was  there." 

"  Were  there  any  foreigners  at  that  time  who  came  to  Hahne- 
mann ?" 

"Oh,  many  of  them.  I  became  acquainted  with  quite  a 
number  of  his  patients.  I  had  been  there  quite  a  while  and 
there  were  patients  there  from  America,  and  Germany,  and 
Russia,  and  a  number  from  my  own  country,  and  they  were 
there  from  all  parts  of  the  world,  and  there  were  a  great  many 
who  expressed  themselves  to  me  in  this  way,  that  the}'  had  not 
gone  to  Hahnemann  until  they  were  in  the  last  stage  of  the 
disease  and  had  been  given  up  by  their  regular  physician. 
Hahnemann  got  them  when,  like  me,  they  were  pretty  nearly 
gone,  so  that  it  looked  to  me  more  like  a  place  where  miracles 
were  being  performed  than  anj^  place  in  which  I  have  ever  been, 
and  numbers  he  brought  from  death  into  health." 

"  He  finally  cured  you?" 

"  Yes,  I  came  home  strong." 

"  How  long  were  you  under  his  care?" 

"About  nine  months.  There  is  one  thing  I  would  like  to  tell 
about  him.  Of  course  I  was  indebted  to  Miss  Sterling  for  being 
taken  to  Paris  and  placed  under  his  care,  and  just  before  she  left 
Paris  she  wanted  to  settle  with  Dr.  Hahnemann,  and  of  course 
under  ordinary  circumstances  it  would  have  been  a  large  bill  she 
would  have  had  to  pay.  Hahnemann  refused  to  make  a  bill,  and 
when  she  insisted  he  said:  '  Madam,  do  you  think  you  have  more 
benevolence  than  I  have  ?  Do  you  suppose  that  you  should 
have  had  all  the  trouble  and  anxiety  and  expense  of  bringing 
him  from  Paisley  and  that  I  should  then  charge  anj^thing.'  He 
says,  '  No.'  " 

"I  suppose  he  received  a  present  that  was  worth  more  than 
the  bill.  That  was  the  disposition  of  the  woman.  Mrs.  Hahne- 
mann, the  young  wife,  was  there  to  assist.  It  was  in  1837.  I 
was  put  on  diet,  a  special  diet  for  morning  and  evening.  I  had 
babies'  food;  that  is,  bread  and  milk  and  sugar.  The  bread  was 
cut  up  in  small  pieces  and  boiled  milk  poured  over  it  with  sugar 


LIFE    IN    PARIS.  367 

and  allowed  to  stand  a  while  and  soak  soft,  and  I  had  that  for 
my  morning  and  evening  meals.  All  stimulants  were  forbidden. 
He  gave  the  orders  for  my  meals.  I  do  not  know  that  I  should 
reveal  his  private  affairs,  but  I  was  going  to  say  that  Hahnemann 
was  an  inveterate  smoker.  I  have  seen  his  j^oung  wife  fill  hi^ 
pipe  for  him  many  times." 

The  following  communication  appeared  in  Dr.  Wahrhold's 
Volksblatter  for  1838:* 

"DR.    SAMUEIv   HAHNEMANN    IN    PARIS." 

"Dr.  Paul  Balogh,  a  Homoeopathic  physician  of  Pesth,  sends 
to  the  Allgemeine  Anzeiger  der  Deutschen  of  February  5,  1838,  a 
communication  concerning  that  remarkable  man  (the  Hofrath 
Hahnemann),  for  which  all  disciples  of  the  great  Master  will  be 
ver}^  thankful.  Dr.  Balogh  says:  'It  was  in  the  year  1825, 
when  I  was  attending  the  Universities  of  Germany,  that  I  was 
so  fortunate  as  to  make  the  acquaintance,  among  other  distin- 
guished Germans,  of  Dr.  Hahnemann  at  Coethen.  I  found  him 
to  be  an  upright  and  amiable  old  man,  who  gave  me  many  inter- 
esting ideas  and  eminently  practical  instruction  in  the  new  doc- 
trine. His  friendly  manner  and  profound  scientific  knowledge 
made  me  esteem  him  highly  and  attached  me  strongly  to  his 
person.  After  I  returned  home  I  became  more  closely  allied  to 
the  practice  of  Homoeopathy,  and  have  remained  faithful  to  the 
new  doctrine  in  all  its  purity,  and  I  rejoice  in  its  most  praise- 
worthy results. 

"  '  With  this  great  reformer,  whose  friendship  cheered  and  con- 
soled me  on  my  thorny  pathway-,  I  kept  up  a  correspondence  un- 
til he  married  Melanie  d'Hervilly  and  exchanged  his  ungrateful 
Fatherland  for  Paris.  The  year  prior  to  this,  when  Dr.  Moscovich 
concluded  to  make  the  tour  of  France,  England  and  Germany, 
he  also  wished  to  make  the  acquaintance  of  this  celebrated  man, 
whose  doctrine  had  interested  him.  This  was  my  motive  for 
giving  to  this  doctor  letters  of  introduction  to  both  Dr.  Hahne- 
mann and  his  worthy  wife.  As  the  letters  which  I  received 
throw  some  light  upon  Dr.  Hahnemann's  life  at  that  time,  I  hope 
that  their  publication  will  interest  his  friends.  The  following 
are  the  letters:' 

*  Volksblatter  fitr  honi.  Heilverfahren  mit  Bezug  auf  Wasserheilkunde , 
Leipzig,  1838,  Vol.  iv. ,  p.  118. 


368  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

"  '  Paris,  August  6,  1837. 
"  '  Rue  de  Milan,  i. 

' '  '  Dear  Sir:  Accept  my  sincere  thanks  for  the  very  kind  letter 
which  you  were  so  good  as  to  write  to  me.  The  sentiments  ex- 
pressed by  you  so  well  in  a  language  foreign  to  your  own,  but 
which  you  write  like  a  native,  have  really  touched  my  heart.  I 
feel  poignant  grief  at  not  knowing  personally  so  distinguished  a 
man,  and  one  so  full  of  zeal  for  our  good  cause,  the  cause  of 
humanity ;  but  there  is  left  me  the  hope  that  you  will  pay  us  a 
visit,  as  did  Dr.  Moscovich,  for  whose  acquaintance  we  are  in- 
debted to  you.  I  do  not  say,  as  did  the  poor  Poles:  'It  is  too 
high  to  God,  and  too  far  to  France.'  God  is  always  near  those 
who  are  right,  and  France  is  accessible  to  all  courageous  men 
who  love  science;  and  have  not  I,  though  a  woman,  traversed 
Europe  in  order  to  fetch  Hahnemann  to  Paris?  Rest  assured 
that  the  most  thoughtful  and  tender  cares  are  bestowed  inces- 
santly upon  him.  He  is  as  fresh  and  ruddy  as  a  rose  and  as 
blithesome  as  a  young  bird ;  indeed,  one  might  truthfully  say 
that  since  he  has  been  with  me  he  becomes  every  year  one  year 
younger.  May  God  give  him  health  here  with  us!  I  send  you 
herewith  a  medal  which  represents  him  perfectly.  It  was  de- 
signed by  one  of  our  most  distinguished  artists. 

"'May  you  be  happy  and  prosperous,  Sir,  and  preserve  your 
friendship  for  us!     Good  health  and  good  luck  to  you! 

"  '  Melanie  Hahnemann.' 
"  '  TT?  Dr.  Paul  Balogh,  Homoeopathic  Physicia^i  at  Pesth  : 

^'^ Dear  Friend:  Your  friendly  remembrance  of  me  has  given 
me  great  pleasure.  I  send  you  my  best  love,  and  wish  you  and 
your  faithful  wife  every  comfort  of  life. 

"  '  Your  true  friend, 

"  'Samuel  Hahnemann.' 

"The  letter  of  Madame  Hahnemann  shows  a  noble  spirit,  and 
attests  both  the  amiable  personal  character  of  the  writer  and  the 
matrimonial  happiness  of  her  venerable  husband.  It  indicates 
besides  a  warmth  of  zeal  for  the  great  discovery  of  her  husband. 
She  has  made  it  the  task  of  her  life  to  make  more  beautiful  the 
evening  of  the  stormy  life  of  one  who  formerly  saved  her  own 
life,  by  the  beneficent  balsam  of  true  fidelity,  loving  care,  tender 
regard  and  delicate  attention.     She  really  seems  to  have  per- 


LIFE    IN    PARIS.  369 

fectly  comprehended  the  great  and  grand  art,  the  problem  of 
which  the  greatest  minds  try  to  solve,  of  preserving  the  waning 
spirit  of  life  in  youthful  vigor,  and  of  warding  off  all  the  hap- 
penings which  cripple  the  power  of  old  age. 

"With  the  letter  came  the  beautiful  large  medal  of  Hahne- 
mann, which  was  designed  by  the  famous  artist  David.  The 
medal  is  a  most  lifelike  representation  of  the  celebrated  mari. 
After  seeing  so  many  bad  copies  of  his  countenance,  it  affords 
me  unbounded  joy  to  possess  a  good  one  at  last,  through  the 
kindness  of  his  noble  wife.  It  brings  his  face  vividly  to  my 
mind  after  an  absence  of  twelve  years.  As  respects  the  features 
of  the  venerable  man,  they  are  the  most  unanswerable  witnesses 
of  the  fresh  vigor  which  animates  the  members  of  his  body. 
These  firm,  pure,  beautiful,  youthful  features  scarcely  permit  us 
to  believe  that  they  are  those  of  a  man  eighty-two  years  old. 
Whatthe  distinguished  naturalist  said  about  style — that  the  style 
is  the  man — might  to  some  extent  be  applied  to  a  person's  hand- 
writing. His  extremely  neat,  firm  and  charming  chirography 
corresponds  perfectly  to  a  pure  and  clear  doctrine  resting  on  a 
firm  basis. 

"According  to  the  statement  of  Dr.  Moscovich,  Dr.  Hahne- 
mann lives  very  pleasantly  in  Paris  and  enjoys  the  high  esteem 
of  all  classes  of  people.  Only  very  few  persons  are  fortunate 
enough  to  see  him  face  to  face  since  his  noble  wife  takes  good 
care  to  keep  away  all  who  might  in  any  degree  annoy  him  or 
might  overtax  his  powers  in  office  consultations. 

"And  he  very  seldom  goes  into  the  city  to  visit  the  sick. 
During  Dr.  Moscovich's  visit  to  Paris,  Baron  Rothschild  was 
the  only  person  whom  he  thus  visited.  For  this  reason  more 
sick  throng  his  dwelling,  but  the  greater  portion  receive  medical 
advice  only  from  his  highly  cultured  and  intelligent  wife.  We 
may  expect  many  interesting  accounts  about  him  from  Dr.  Mos- 
covich, since  he  often  had  the  opportunity  to  come  into  close 
contact  with  him. 

"Paul  Balogh,  M.  D." 


370  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 


CHAPTER  IvXX. 

HAHNEMANN     TO     DR.     HENNICKE  —  EIGHTY-THIRD     BIRTHDAY 
FETE — HAHNEMANN   TO   STAFF. 

In  the  same  journal  Dr.  Hennicke,  Counsellor  of  Legation  and 
editor  of  the  AUgemeine  Anseigerder  Deutschen,  writes  as  follows: 
"The  publication  of  the  following  letter  which  the  undersigned 
received  from  Dr.  Hahnemann,  will  doubtless  not  be  unwelcome 
to  his  many  friends  and  relations,  since  it  gives  definite  informa- 
tion about  the  happy  domestic  relations  and  professional  activity 
of  the  most  praiseworthy  man  in  the  history  of  science.  It  is  a 
psychological  phenomena  that  a  youthful  spirit  still  animates 
this  Nestor  among  physicians,  now  in  his  eighty-fourth  year, 
and  that  his  handwriting  still  exhibits  the  same  neatness  and 
beauty  as  in  the  prime  of  youth.  The  undersigned  can  judge  of 
this  matter  for  he  has  been  in  friendly  relations  and  correspond- 
ence with  Dr.  Hahnemann  for  forty-three  years. 
'"Dr.  J.  Fr.  H.  (Hennicke.) 

"  ' Dear  Friend :  Your  kindly  interest  in  me  and  whatever  befalls 
me  since  I  have  been  here,  which  is  expressed  by  your  previous 
.letter  to  me  under  date  of  3d  of  November,  had  warmed  again 
my  old  gratitude  to  you  How  greatly  indebted  to  you  is  the 
new  true  art  of  healing,  which  you  have  disseminated  so  effect- 
ively by  voice  and  pen. 

"  '  So  50U  wish  tohearsoraethingaboutmeand  my  doings  since 
I  have  been  here?  I  am  more  cheerful  and  contented  here  under 
the  unwearied  and  unexampled  care  of  my  incomparable  Melanie 
than  I  was  during  my  last  years  at  Coethen.  She  cures  gratui- 
tously every  day  under  my  supervision  a  great  number  of  poor 
people.  Such  supervision  is  now  almost  unnecessary,  since  she 
makes  great  progress  everj^  day  through  her  own  study  of  our 
system  of  healing.  Her  cures  of  the  worst  diseases,  which  may 
be  called  natural,  these  poor  people  being  too  impecunious  to 
get  themselves  botched  as  do  the  well-to-do  and  the  rich  by  the 
pernicious  method  of  healing,  often  amazed  everybody,  and  even 
myself.  I  did  not  wish  to  write  anything  for  France,  or  what  is 
almost  the  same  thing  for  Paris,  in  order  to  make  our  healing 
art  better  known  to  a  praiseworthy  land  of  freedom,  a  land  where 


HAHNEMANN   TO    DR.    HENNICKE.  37 1 

one  can  do  whatever  is  good  without  being  hindered  and  with- 
out being  punished  for  it.  Far  too  much  has  already  been  writ- 
ten about  a  system  which  the  unbelieving  ignoramus  lets  be 
perverted. 

"  'No.  I  wished,  by  repeated  cures  of  the  worst  kinds  of  un- 
cured  sick  persons,  to  thoroughly  convince  the  public  of  the  in- 
finite superiority  of  our  healing  art  to  any  other  that  can  be 
named ;  a  task  which,  it  would  seem  could  not  be  performed  in  a 
city  of  more  than  a  million  of  inhabitants.  But  God  be  praised! 
this  task  has  already  been  partially  performed.  Our  system  is 
getting  to  be  respectable  in  the  estimation  of  the  Parisian  public 
on  account  of  its  unprecedentedly  favorable  results. 

' ' '  More  I  could  not  desire,  and  yet,  on  account  of  these  suc- 
cesses my  persistence  in  the  cure  of  proscribed  cases  is  at  the 
same  time  the  jest  of  all  those  who,  before  my  arrival,  palmed 
themselves  off,  both  in  Paris  and  in  the  Provinces,  as  Hom- 
oeopathic physicians,  because  more  and  more  enthusiastic,  and 
I  have  been  urged  on  to  the  more  zealous  study  of  this  most  ab- 
struse and  most  beneficent  of  all  human  arts. 

"  'Every  Monday  morning  from  eight  to  eleven  and  a  half 
o'clock  there  assemble  in  my  quite  unpretentious  hotel  a  number 
of  the  best  Homoeopathic  physicians  of  the  city  for  the  purpose 
of  exchanging  views  on  Homo2opathic  matters ;  and  even  tran- 
sient Homoeopathic  physicians  and  friends  of  our  system  par- 
ticipate in  this  voluntary  union. 

"'The  news  thus  imparted  from  Rome,  Munich  and  North 
America  is  partially  new  to  me  and  very  agreeable. 

"  'May  God  continue  t()  keep  you  and  j^ours  in  as  great  pros- 
perity as  you  could  desire,  and  keep  unchanged  your  love  to  me, 
a  love  which  I  shall  never  neglect  to  repay  with  that  of  equal 
ardor. 

"  'Yours  sincerely, 

"  'Samuel  PIahnemann. 
■"  'Paris,  i6th  Decembej^  ^Sjy. 

'''Rue  de  Milan,  No.  z." 

"  'Dr.  Plaubel  sends  a  friendly  message.'  " 

Dr.  Hennicke  was  a  lifelong  friend  of  Hahnemann,  and  his 
influential  paper  greatly  aided  in  the  spread  of  Homoeopathy. 
The  Allopaths  called  the  editor  the  Sancho  Panza  of  the  Don 
Quixote,  Hahnemann. 


372  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

Dr.  Hennicke  writing  of  Hahnemann  in  1825  says  in  his  paper: 
"The  editor  had  in  1792  the  honor  of  making  the  acquaintance 
of  this  man  distinguished  by  his  rare  acumen,  his  powers  of  ob- 
servation, his  clear  judgment,  as  well  as  by  his  originality  of 
character,  uprightness  and  simplicity."  And  again  in  1833: 
"Two  cures  which  Hahnemann  successfully  accomplished  in  the 
year  1792  in  Gotha  and  Georgenthal,  and  which  excited  general 
admiration,  together  with  the  opinion  of  him  held  by  a  doctor 
who  died  here  (Dr.  Buddeus),  first  directed  my  attention  to 
Hahnemann,  filled  me  with  the  greatest  esteem  for  him  and  were 
the  origin  of  our  friendly  relations  and  of  our  subsequent  unin- 
terrupted correspondence."'"^ 

Hahnemann,  in  a  letter  to  Stapf  dated  Dec.  22,  1825,  in  speak- 
ing of  this  same  Hennicke,  says:t  "  It  is  a  good  thing  that  the 
memorial  of  the  Society  of  Homoeopathic  Physicians  against  the 
redoubtable  Messrs.  Schnaubert  and  Mombert  has  appeared  in 
the  Ajiz.  d.  D.  before  the  door  was  closed. 

"  In  the  meantime  the  editor  wrote  me  a  letter,  which  did  great 
credit  to  his  heart,  in  which  he  regretted  the  admission  of  the 
lucubrations  of  these  gentlemen,;};  and  begged  my  pardon.  I  re- 
plied that  I  was  quite  indifferent  to  such  calumnies,  that  they 
did  not  disturb  my  equanimity  for  one  moment,  and  that  he  need 
not  give  himself  any  anxiety  on  my  account,  and  he  was  wel- 
come to  publish  all  and  anything  however  extravagant ;  but  that 
his  paper  was  only  defiled  by  the  trash,  which  I  very  much  re- 
gretted, and  if  it  went  on  thus  it  would  become  so  distasteful 
that  honest  people  would  cease  to  read  it.  His  concern  should 
be  for  his  own  interests  not  for  my  feelings. 

"This  made  an  impression  on  him — so  that  he  did  not  allow 
any  more  copies,  even  of  those  two  articles  against  Homoeop- 
athy, to  be  thrown  off,  and  announced  that  for  the  future  he  re- 
fused to  admit  anything  that  did  not  contain  novel  scientific 
views  and  proved  facts.  Read  what  he  says  in  No.  323.  So  this 
theatre  for  the  display  of  such  venomous  diatribes  is  closed  for- 
ever.    That  is  another  victory  over  the  black  demons. 

"Away,  then,  with  your  pusillanimous  fears!  Such  things. 
cannot  do  the  slightest  harm  to  the  good  cause      Patients  who 

*"Ameke,"  pp.  161,  283 
■\  Horn.  World,  Vol.  xxiv.,  p.  311. 

t  The  Allopathic  physicians.  He  said  he  had  to  admit  two  out  of  the 
large  number  of  hostile  articles,  to  be  impartial. 


HAHNEMANN    TO    STAPF.  373 

allow  themselves  to  be  misled  by  them  are  to  be  pitied,  but  if 
they  cause  one  to  turn  his  back  on  us,  they  bring  over  to  our 
side  in  their  stead  three  other  more  reasonable  ones  who  have 
the  good  sense  to  be  guided  by  experience." 

In  1838  the  eighty-third  birthday  was  chosen  for  a  grand  cele- 
bration. The  following  account  originally  published  in  the 
Hygea  is  of  interest:* 

"My  friend  C.  called  on  me  a  few  days  ago  and  offered  to 
conduct  me  to  a  festival  which  was  to  be  held  in  honor  of  a 
celebrated  German. 

"  When  we  had  arrived  at  the  Chausse  d'Antin  he  told  me  at 
last,  '  we  go  to  Dr.  Hahnemann;  to- day  is  the  celebration  of  his 
eighty-third  birthday;  you  will  here  have  an  opportunity  of  cor- 
recting your  opinion  respecting  the  actual  state  of  Homoeopathy 
in  Paris.'  The  Rue  de  Milan,  where  Hahnemann  resides,  was 
filled,  as  is  usual  at  great  soirees,  to  the  right  and  left  with 
private  carriages  and  hackney  coaches.  The  Father  of  Homoe- 
opathy, observed  my  friend,  has,  as  you  perceive,  a  splendid 
residence;  we  passed  through  a  gate  and  court-yard  to  a  hotel 
surrounded  by  a  garden,  occupied  by  Hahnemann  alone;  from 
here  we  entered  a  large  salon  on  the  first  floor,  already  crowded 
by  the  beau  vtojide  of  Paris,  in  the  middle  of  which  stood  a' 
marble  bust,  ornamented  with  a  golden  laurel  crown  and  with 
wreaths  of  the  flowers  of  cicuta,  belladonna  and  digitalis.  This, 
said  C,  is  the  bust  of  Hahnemann,  and  with  this  golden  crown 
of  laurel  it  has  been  ornamented  to-day,  in  celebration  of  his 
birthday,  by  his  grateful  disciples  and  friends. 

"On  both  ends  of  the  crown  hanging  over  the  shoulders 
were  engraved  distinguished  names  trom  all  countries  of  Europe 
and  America.  The  bust  is  the  work  of  David,  who,  himself  a 
zealous  adherent  of  Homoeopathy,  was  present  at  this  festival. 
While  I  conversed  with  David  about  Boerne,  whom  he  designated 
with  emotion  as  his  dear  friend,  Hahnemann,  in  the  full  vigor 
of  health,  looking  more  like  sixty-three  than  like  eighty-three 
years  of  age,  entered  the  saloon  upon  the  arm  of  his  lady,  also 
much  distinguished  for  her  high  intellectual  powers,  and  warmly 

"^Miscellanies  on  Homoeopathy,  1838,  p.  17.  Horn.  Exam.,  Vol.  iii.,  p. 
345.  Hotnoeopathist,  Dio Lewis,  Dec.  i,  1850.  Hygea,  Vol.  viii.,  parts,  P-  461. 
Aibrecht's  "Leben  und  Wirken,"  p.  78.  Archives  de  la  Med.  Homoeo- 
pathique,  March,  1838. 


374  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

welcomed  his  guests.  One  of  the  first  Homoeopathic  ph\'sicians 
of  Paris,  Dr.  Leon  Simon,  now  took  the  noble  old  gentleman  by 
the  hand  and  conducted  him  in  front  of  the  bust  crowned 
with  garlands,  proclaiming  to  him,  in  an  animated  speech, 
Immortality.  He  was  followed  by  French  and  Italian  poets 
with  poems  written  for  the  occasion;  after  which  German  musi- 
cal virtuosi,  like  Kalkbrenner,  Panofka,  Hate,  delighted  the 
company  with  their  performances.  On  our  return  C.  said: 
'  You  have  seen  how  many  Americans,  Englishmen  and  Italians 
attended  the  festival  and  what  class  of  Frenchmen  believe  in 
Homoeopathy.  Hahnemann  realizes  annually  from  his  practice 
alone  not  less  than  200,000  francs.  You  know  now  where  he 
resides;  do  me  the  favor  and  call  to-morrow  morning  at  his 
house,  and  you  will  see  how  it  stands  with  the  faith  in  Hahne- 
mann and  his  art.'  Arriving  the  following  morning  in  Hahne- 
mann's hotel  I  found  the  court-yard  and  stairs  filled  with  poor 
persons,  whom  Hahnemann  treats  gratis,  and  in  the  ante- 
chambers I  counted  no  less  than  fifteen  persons." 

Though  this  was  a  birthday  celebration,  and  this  should  have 
been  on  April  10,  yet  the  account  in  the  Hygea  is  given  as 
occurring  on  the  19th  of  February. 

Soon  after  this  Hahnemann  wrote  to  his  old  friend  Stapf,  in 
the  Fatherland,  as  follows:* 

''Dear  Friend:  Your  genial  letter,  which  the  Polish  doctor 
brought  me,  gave  me  much  pleasure,  as  I  received  from  it  a  con- 
firmation of  my  comforting  conjecture,  that  there  is  still  in  Ger- 
many a  small  body  of  true  Homceopaths  (among  whom  I  never 
forget  to  reckon  you  and  Gross)  who  are  not  led  awa}^  hy  that 
vulgar,  bragging  joker  and  impudent  sansculotte,  Griesselich, 
and  his  crew.  But  in  truth  I  do  not  apprehend  that  these 
wretches,  with  all  their  abusive  talk,  will  make  any  impression 
on  the  rising  generation  of  doctors.  Thej^  will  soon  learn  from 
their  own  experience  that  no  good  can  come  of  such  distorted 
travesties  of  my  doctrine,  and  will  remain  all  the  more  immova- 
bly devoted  to  the  true  healing  art. 

■'Honest  Germany!  I  had  credited  it  with  greater  powers  of 
judgment  and  discrimination.  At  all  events,  these  heresies 
have  met  with  no  response  in  France,  England  or  Italy. 

"  I  found  that  France  was,  and  is  still,  very  weak  in  our  art. 


*  Horn.   World,  Vol.  xxvi.,  p.  117. 


HAHNEMANN    TO    STAFF.  375 

But  there  are  more  true  followers  and  capable,  zealous  disciples 
in  the  provinces  than  in  the  capital.  (Be  so  good  as  not  to  make 
publicly  known  my  sentiments  about  the  Homoeopaths  in  the 
capital.) 

"  During  the  last  half  year  an  ardent  zeal  for  Homoeopathy 
has  been  aroused  among  the  young  graduates  by  the  number  of 
cures  effected  by  myself  and  my  dear  wife;  for  she  has  cured  the 
most  serious  diseases  of  a  much  larger  number  of  the  poor  than 
I  have  of  the  rich.  From  fifteen  to  twenty  daily  crowd  the 
ante-room  and  even  the  stairs  of  our  little  house,  which  is  occu- 
pied by  us  only. 

"The  astonishment  caused  by  these  cures  excites  the  interest 
of  the  intelligent  youths,  whose  feeling  for  suffering  fellow- 
creatures  has  not  yet  been  extinguished  by  the  practice  of  Allo- 
pathy. What  I  found  among  the  older  so-called  Homoeopaths 
here  was  very  much  the  same  as  the  bastards  of  this  sort  in 
Saxony.  What  I  desire  to  live  to  see  in  Paris  is  not  yet  there, 
but  is  still  in  the  future,  for  there  are  hardlj^  four  or  five  really 
good  ones  among  the  Homoeopathic  practitioners. 

' '  But  a  good  Homoeopath  has  to  fight  a  hard  battle  with  the 
many  prejudices  of  the  public  who  think  nothing  of  any  system 
of  medicine  or  of  any  doctor  who  does  not  bleed,  apply  leeches, 
stick  on  fly  blisters,  insert  setons,  prescribe  tisanes,  etc. 

"Of  late  years  great  obstacles  have  been  thrown  in  the  wa}^  of 
foreign  medical  men  obtaining  leave  to  practice  here  by  the 
Royal  Academy  of  Medicine,  probably  in  order  to  prev^ent  the 
introduction  of  Homoeopathy.  Moreover,  everything  here  is  four 
or  five  times  dearer  than  elsewhere.  The  rent  of  my  house  is 
six  thousand  francs  per  annum,  and  my  carriage  (without  which 
a  medical  practice  cannot  be  carried  on)  costs  me  nine  thousand 
francs. 

"In  England  our  art  makes  greater  progress  than  in  Paris; 
the  cures  I  have  performed  on  Englishmen  who  have  left  their 
country  to  be  under  my  treatment  may  have  had' something  to 
do  with  this. 

"I  live  here  highly  respected,  partly  no  doubt  because  my 
wife  is  a  Frenchwoman  of  good  family  and  has  a  large  circle  of 
distinguished  friends;  and  I  enjoy  better  health  and  spirits  than 
for  the  past  twenty  years.  Many  Germans  who  knew  me  form- 
erly tell  me  I  look  many  years  younger,  for  which  I  have  ex- 


376  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

pressly  to   thank    my  loving   warden,    ni)^   dear   Melanie,    who 
joins  me  in  kind  remembrances  to  you  and  your  amiable  family. 

"Farewell!  and  be  assured  of  the  unalterable  friendship  of 
your  devoted, 

"Samuel  Hahnemann. 

''Paris,  April 20,  1838,  Rue  de  Milan,  No.  7." 

"You  would  oblige  me  if  when  opportunity  offers  you  would 
send  me  the  first  part  of  the  sixteenth  volume  of  your  immortal 
Archiv.  My  copy  has  got  lost.  I  thank  you  for  the  two  other 
parts.  I  also  thank  you  very  much  for  Lachesis  and  Crotalus, 
though  Dr.  Andrew  has  not  yet  delivered  them  to  me.  You 
would  oblige  me  very  much  if  you  would  send  me  Hering's 
book  on  Serpent  Poison."* 


CHAPTER  LXXI. 

HELEN  BERKLEY — MRS.  MOWATT'S  VISIT  TO  HAHNEMANN. 

In  1839  the  celebrated  actress,  Mrs.  Anna  Cora  Mowatt, 
while  visiting  Paris,  called  upon  Hahnemann.  An  account  is 
given  in  her  book  "Autobiography  of  an  Actress."!  Upon  her 
return  to  America,  Mrs.  Mowatt,  in  1840,  wrote  a  series  of 
articles  concerning  the  celebrated  persons  that  she  had  met  in 
Europe,  under  the  nom  de  plume  of  "Helen  Berkley,"  and 
among  others  one  about  Hahnemann  and  Madame  Hahnemann. 
This  was  copied  into  the  Homoeopathic  journals  of  the  time  and 
has  been  several  times  published  in  pamphlet  form. 

It  is  given  here  in  full.  As  the  account  in  the  Autobiograph)^ 
is  but  short  and  is  essentially  the  same  as  in  the  following 
sketch,  it  is  here  omitted.     We  quote : 

In  1839,  Dr.  Hahnemann  was  residing  in  Paris  near  the  Gar- 
den of  the  Luxembourg.  During  the  winter  of  that  year,  de- 
siring to  consult  him  in  behalf  of  an  invalid  friend,  I  made  him 
my  first  visit.     That  I  might  obtain  an   audience  as  early   as 

*"Wirkungen  des  schlangengiftes  zum  arztlichen  gebrauche  vergleic- 
hend  zesammengestallt  durch  Constantiii  Heriug,  Allentaun,  Pa.,  A.  und 
W.  Blumer,  1837." 

t  "  Autobiography  of  an  Actress."  Bj'  Anua  Cora  Mowatt.  Boston. 
Tickuor.     1854. 


HELEN   BERKLEY.  377 

possible,  I  entered  the  carriage  which  was  to  transport  me  to 
his  residence  at  a  quarter  past  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning. 
After  about  half  an  hour's  ride,  finding  that  the  coachman 
stopped  his  horses  without  dismounting,  I  inquired  if  we  had 
reached  our  destination.  No,  madame,  it  is  not  our  turn  yet. 
We  must  wait  a  little  while.  See,  there  is  Dr.  Hahnemann's 
house,  he  replied,  pointing  to  a  palace-like  mansion  at  some 
distance.  This  mansion  was  surrounded  by  a  massive  stone 
wall  with  an  iron  gate  in  the  centre.  Impatient  at  the  delay,  I 
leaned  out  of  the  window  and  beheld  a  long  line  of  carriages  in 
front  of  us  driving  one  by  one  through  the  gate,  and  out  again, 
as  fast  as  their  occupants  alighted.  This  was  vexatious,  I  had 
taken  such  especial  pains  to  be  early,  and  all  to  no  purpose. 
Behind  us  stretched  a  line  of  coaches  lengthening  every  minute, 
and  already  quite  as  formidable  as  the  one  in  front.  I  had  un- 
consciously taken  my  station  in  the  midst  of  a  procession  slowly 
advancing  to  pay  homage  to  this  modern  ^sculapius.  I  already 
knew  something.of  Hahnemann's  celebrity  ;  but  my  opinion  of 
his  skill  was  marvellously  fortified  as  I  stared  behind  me  and 
before  me,  and  then  at  the  empty  carriages  driving  away  around 
me. 

In  about  twenty  minutes  the  carriage  in  which  I  sat  wonder- 
ing and  waiting,  during  that  time  having  moved  a  few  paces 
forward  every  minute,  at  last  drove  briskly  through  the  iron 
gate,  around  the  spacious  court,  and  deposited  me,  to  my  great 
satisfaction,  at  the  front  entrance  of  Hahnemann's  magnificent 
dwelling.  Three  or  four  liveried  domestics  assembled  in  a 
large  hall  received  the  visitors  as  they  alighted,  and  conducted 
them  to  the  foot  of  the  wide  staircase.  At  the  head  of  the  first 
flight  they  were  received  by  a  couple  more  of  these  bedizened 
gentlemen,  who  ushered  them  into  an  elegant  saloon,  sump- 
tuously furnished  and  opening  into  a  number  of  less  spacious 
apartments. 

The  saloon  was  occupied  by  fashionably  dressed  ladies  and 
gentlemen,  children  with  their  nurses,  and  here  and  there  an 
invalid  reposing  on  a  velvet  couch  or  embroidered  ottoman. 
The  unexpected  throng,  the  noisy  hum  of  whispering  voices, 
the  laughter  of  sportive  children,  and  the  absence  of  vacant 
seats  were  somewhat  confusing.  I  entered  at  the  same  moment 
with  a  lady  who,  with  her  nurse  and  child,  had  alighted  from 


378  LIFE   OF    HAHNEMANN. 

her  carriage  immediately  before  myself.  Probably  noticing  my 
bewildered  air,  and  observing  that  I  was  a  stranger,  she  very 
courteously  turned  to  me  and  said  in  French  :  "  We  shall  be  able 
to  find  seats  in  some  other  room  ;  permit  me  to  show  you  the 
way."  I  thanked  her  gratefully  and  followed  her.  After  pass- 
ing through  a  suite  of  thronged  apartments,  she  led  the  way  to  a 
tasteful  little  boudoir,  which  was  only  occupied  by  one  or  two 
persons.  I  knew  the  lady  who  had  so  kindly  acted  as  my  con- 
ductress was  a  person  of  rank,  for  I  had  noticed  the  coat  of  arms 
on  the  panels  of  her  coach,  and  remarked  that  her  attendants 
were  clothed  in  livery.  But  to  meet  with  civility  from  strangers 
is  of  so  common  an  occurrence  that  her  graciousness  awakened 
in  me  no  surprise. 

I  afterwards  learned  that  she  was  the  Countess  de  R.,  a  young 
Italian,  who  had  married  a  French  count  of  some  importance  in 
the  beau  monde. 

We  had  hardly  seated  ourselves  in  the  quiet  little  boudoir 
when  a  valet  entered  and  politely  demanded  our  cards.  They 
were  presented  and  he  placed  them  in  the  order  received,  amongst 
a  large  number  in  his  hand.  It  was  obvious  that  we  should  be 
obliged  to  wait  an  indefinite  period,  and  I  soon  commenced 
amusing  myself  by  examining  the  fine  paintings  with  which  the 
walls  were  lavishly  decorated,  the  pieces  of  sculpture,  the  costly 
vases  scattered  about  the  apartments,  and  a  number  of  curious 
medals  heaped  upon  a  centre  table.  The  sculpture,  vases, 
medals,  and  even  some  of  the  paintings  had  been  presented  to 
Hahnemann  as  memorials  of  the  esteem  and  gratitude  of  his 
patients.  Every  room  contained  several  marble  busts  of  Hahne- 
mann himself,  some  much  larger  than  life,  some  as  large,  and 
some  smaller.  These  also  had  been  presented  to  him  on  differ- 
ent occasions  as  tokens  of  respect. 

I  was  standing  before  a  most  lifelike  portrait  of  the  great 
doctor,  lost  in  admiration  of  its  masterly  execution,  when  the 
young  Countess,  who  had  retained  her  seat  while  I  wandered 
around  the  room,  joined  me  and  said:  "Do  you  know  who 
painted  that  picture?" 

"No,"  I  replied,  "but  although  I  am  not  a  judge  of  art,  I 
should  almost  venture  to  say  that  it  was  the  work  of  a  master's 
hand." 

"  Undoubtedly  it  is  a  master-piece  of  workmanship.  It  was 
executed,  however,  by  Madame  Hahnemann." 


HELEN    BERKLEY.  379 

"Madame  Hahnemann!  is  it  possible.  Is  Hahnemann  married 
then?" 

"  To  be  sure,  and  so  happily  that  to  become  acquainted  with 
his  domestic  history  is  of  itself  almost  enough  to  induce  one  to 
venture  upon  matrimony." 

"I  am  delighted  to  hear  it.  I  knew  nothing  of  him  except  as 
a  skillful  physician,  and  a  man  of  extraordinary  genius." 

"His  private  history  is  equally  interesting,  and  quite  as 
remarkable  as  his  public." 

"  Have  you  known  him  a  great  while?  How  old  is  he?  How 
long  has  he  been  married?"  questioned  I,  anxious  to  obtain  all 
the  information  in  my  power. 

"I  have  been  acquainted  with  his  wife  and  himself  several 
years.  He  is  about  eighty-four  years  old.  He  was  married  to 
his  present  wife  in  his  eightieth  year." 

"Indeed.  Was  he  a  widower  then?  Is  his  second  wife  young 
or  as  old  as  himself?" 

"She  is  about  forty-five  years  his  junior,  and  she  still  retains 
much  of  the  vivacity  and  freshness  of  youth." 

"  What  induced  her  to  marry  him  ?" 

"Veneration  for  his  talents,  esteem  for  his  virtues,  affection 
for  himself,  mingled,  perhaps,  with  a  spice  of  gratitude  for  his 
services  to  herself.  You  are  a  stranger  to  her  and  will  laugh  if 
I  say  she  adores  him,  but  the  term  is  not  too  strong  to  convey 
an  idea  of  the  truth." 

"Pray  tell  me  something  of  her  history.  I  am  deeply  in- 
terested." 

"  With  pleasure.  Hahnemann  is  the  father  of  the  most  united, 
prosperous  and  the  happiest  family  I  ever  beheld.  He  had  been 
for  many  years  a  widower  when  he  was  called  in  to  attend  Mile. 
d'Hervilly,  who  was  pronounced  by  her  physicians  tq  be  in  the 
last  stages  of  consumption.  He  was  residing  at  the  time  at 
Coethen.  Marie  Melanie  d'Hervilly  Gohier,  then  his  patient  and 
now  his  wife,  is  descended  from  a  noble  French  family  of  immense 
wealth.  She  had  suffered  a  number  of  years  with  a  pulmonary 
aflfection  and  disease  of  the  heart.  The  most  eminent  physicians 
in  Europe  had  fruitlessly  endeavored  to  benefit  her.  After  passing 
the  winter  in  Italy,  whither  she  had  been  sent  in  the  hope  that 
a  mild  climate  might  effect  what  medicine  had  failed  to  accom- 
plish, she  returned  to  Germany  in  a  state  which  her  physicians 


38o  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

declared  beyond  the  reach  of  medical  aid.  She  is  a  woman  of 
remarkable  strength  of  mind  and  most  comprehensive  intellect. 
The  fame  of  Hahnemann's  wonderful  cures  had  reached  her,  but 
she  was  unacquainted  with  his  reasons  for  his  peculiar  mode  of 
practice.  Though  so  debilitated  by  protracted  suffering  that 
she  was  unable  to  make  the  slightest  physical  exertion,  she  ex- 
amined his  system  for  herself  and  then  determined  upon  con- 
sulting him.  He  became  deeply  interested  in  her  case,  and  in 
an  incredibly  short  time  her  sufferings  were  relieved,  her  cough 
subdued,  and  her  disease  of  the  heart  assumed  a  different  and 
more  agreeable  shape." 

"And  she  married  him  out  of  gratitude  ?" 

"By  no  means;  she  was  charmed  with  his  genius,  his  charac- 
ter, his  manners,  everything  about  him;  and  conceived  an  aflfec- 
tion  for  him  perhaps  deeper  and  truer  than  the  passion  which  we 
generally  call  love." 

"  Which  he  reciprocated?" 

"  Now  you  question  me  too  closely;  I  cannot  answer  on  which 
side  the  attachment  first  sprung.  Nor  do  I  know  au}'^  reason 
why  it  should  not  have  originated  in  the  doctor  himself. 
Madame  Hahnemann  is  a  woman  of  the  most  brilliant  talents; 
her  information  is  extensive,  her  mind  highly  cultivated,  and 
she  is  proficient  in  almost  every  elegant  accomplishment  you 
can  name.  Combine  these  attractions  with  that  of  a  prepossess- 
ing person,  and  you  will  not  find  it  easy  to  imagine  a  man  insen- 
sible to  her  charms." 

"How  do  Hahnemann's  children  like  the  idea  of  a  step- 
mother?" 

"  She  is  tenderly  beloved  by  them  all.  Her  delicacy  and  gen- 
erosity towards  them  are  worthy  of  mention.  Hahnemann  had 
amassed  a  large  fortune,  which  she  refused  even  during  his  life- 
time to  share  with  him.  She  was  determined  to  give  no  room 
for  the  supposition  that  she  could  have  been  influenced  bj-  inter- 
ested motives  in  forming  this  union.  She  stipulated  before  her 
marriage  that  she  should  ever  be  excluded  from  any  participa- 
tion in  the  avails  of  Hahnemann's  estate;  and  induced  him  to 
settle  the  bulk  o'f  his  fortune  on  the  children  of  his  first  wife, 
merely  reserving  for  himself  an  annuity  suflEicient  for  his  per- 
sonal expenses." 

"  How,  then,  was  she  provided  for?" 

"She  was  alreadj'  independent  as  to  fortune." 


HELEN    BERKLEY.  38 1 

"Madame  Hahnemann  must  undoubtedly  be  a  very  talented 
woman,  if  this  painting  is  hers,"  said  I,  resuming  my  examina- 
tion of  the  fine  portrait  which  had  first  attracted  my  attention. 

"Not  only  that  one,  but  several  others  in  the  larger  apart- 
ments," replied  Madame  de  R.  "Some  of  her  paintings 
have  been  even  admired  in  the  galleries  of  the  Louvre.  Thus 
her  name  is  classed  with  those  of  the  most  distinguished  French 
artists.  She  is  a  poetess,  too,  and  her  works  have  won  a  truly 
flattering  approbation  from  the  public." 

"  A  poetess.     Where  will  her  qualifications  end  ?" 

"  I  almost  believe  they  have  no  end.  She  is  mistress  of  five 
or  six  languages,  which  she  both  writes  and  speaks  with  ease 
and  fluency." 

"She  appears  to  be  worthy,  indeed,  of  being  the  wife  of 
Hahnemann." 

"He  thinks  so,  I  assure  you.  He  would  not  now  find  it  so 
easy  to  dispense  with  her  services." 

"  Is  he  infirm,  then  ?" 

"  Not  in  the  least.  He  has  always  enjoyed  excellent  health. 
His  sight  and  hearing  are  unimpaired.  His  activity  is  remark- 
able. Even  yet  there  are  an  elasticity  in  his  movements  and 
sprightliness  in  his  manners  which  make  you  feel  that  some- 
thing of  youth  has  been  left  to  him  even  in  age.  He  would 
never  remind  you  of  the  fable  of  the  frog,  whose  discerning 
patients  cried:   '  Physician,  cure  thyself.'  " 

"  Perhaps  that  is  quite  as  remarkable  as  anything  you  have 
told  me  about  him;  medical  men  generally  look  as  though  they 
needed,  but  feared  to  try,  the  effects  of  their  own  medicines. 
Since  he  is  so  active,  I  suppose  it  would  be  possible  to  induce 
him  to  visit  a  patient." 

"  I  do  not  think  that  could  be  easily  accomplished.  In  a  case 
of  great  peril,  perhaps  you  might  obtain  the  services  of  his 
wife." 

"  His  wife?     Why  surely — " 

At  that  moment  our  conversation  was  interrupted  by  the 
entrance  of  a  lady.  She  was  attired  in  a  simple  demi  toilette 
and  wore  -o  bonnet;  I  therefore  concluded  she  was  not  a  guest. 
The  instant  she  entered,  the  delicate-looking  child  my  new 
acquaintance  had  been  caressing  upon  her  knee,  sprang  to  the 
ground  and  greeted  the  lady  with  expressions  of  the  most  affec- 


382  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

tionate  joy.  She  was  an  elegant-looking  woman,  with  a  finely- 
rounded  form,  somewhat  above  the  medium  height.  Her  face 
could  not  be  called  beautiful  or  pretty,  but  the  term  handsome 
might  be  applied  to  it  with  great  justice.  Her  forehead  was  full 
and  high,  and  her  hair  thrown  back  in  a  manner  which  perfectly 
displayed  its  expansive  proportions.  Those  luxuriant  tresses  of 
a  bright,  flaxen  hue  were  partl}^  gathered  in  a  heavy  knot  at  the 
back  of  her  head  and  partly  fell  in  long  ringlets  behind  her  ears. 
Her  complexion  was  of  that  clear  but  tintless  description  which 
so  strongly  resembles  alabaster.  There  was  a  thoughtful  expres- 
sion in  her  large  blue  eyes,  which,  but  for  the  benignant  smile 
on  her  lips,  would  have  given  a  solemn  aspect  to  her  counte- 
nance. 


CHAPTER  LXXn. 

HELEN    BERKLEY'S    STORY    CONTINUED. 

She  exchanged  a  few  words  with  Madame  de  R.,  kissed 
the  child  with  much  tenderness,  and  addressed  several  other 
persons  present.  While  she  was  conversing,  the  child  still  re- 
tained her  hand,  following  her  about  and  pressing  close  to  her 
side,  with  its  little,  pale,  affectionate  face  upturned  at  every  pause, 
as  though  earnestly  soliciting  a  caress.  In  a  few  minutes  she 
retired. 

I  turned  to  Madame  de  R.  and  inquired:  "Is  that  Madame 
Hahnemann?" 

"Yes;  is  she  not  a  fine-looking  woman?" 

"Undoubtedly.  And  from  her  appearance  alone  I  can  well 
imagine  her  endowed  with  many  of  the  attributes  you  have 
described  her  as  possessing.  Your  little  son  seems  very  much 
attached  to  her." 

"Poor  little  fellow.  He  has  good  cause  to  be  so.  He  had 
suffered  from  his  birth  with  a  scrofulous  affection  which  baffled 
the  skill  of  the  best  medical  men  in  Paris.  They  gave  me  no 
hope  of  his  recovery,  and  he  is  my  onl}'^  child.  At  three  years 
old  he  was  unable  to  walk  or  even  stand  alone.  It  was  then  that 
Hahnemann  arrived  in  Paris,  and  I  immediately  called  upon 
him.     It  was  impossible  to  bring  the  child  here  without  risking 


HELEN    BERKLEY'S    STORY    CONTINUED.  383 

his  life,  and  Hahnemann  attends  to  no  patients  out  of  the  house. 
Madame  Hahnemann  told  me,  however,  not  to  be  uneasy,  as 
she  would  herself  take  charge  of  the  boy.  She  visited  him 
regularly  twice  a  day,  watched  him  with  the  anxious  tender- 
ness of  a  mother,  and  prescribed  for  him  in  a  manner  which 
proved  the  extent  of  her  judgment  and  skill.  In  a  few  months 
the  child  recovered.  He  has  never  had  a  positive  return  of  the 
disease,  but  he  remains  exceedingly  delicate.  I  bring  him  to 
see  his  good  friend  and  physician  every  few  weeks  for  the  sake 
of  learning  her  opinion  of  his  health  and  consulting  her  concern- 
ing his  management." 

"Do  you  mean  that  Madame  Hahnemann  prescribes  for  him 
on  her  own  responsibility?" 

"I  do.  She  is  almost  as  thoroughly  acquainted  with  medicine 
as  her  husband.  She  became  his  pupil  with  the  view  of  assist- 
ing him  when  age  might  weaken  his  faculties.  She  now  attends 
to  all  his  patients,  as  you  will  find  directly,  merely  consulting 
him  in  cases  of  great  difficulty." 

"  That  is  being  a  helpmate  indeed.  But  are  the  patients  always 
willing  to  trust  her?" 

"  Assuredly;  she  has  too  incontestably  proved  her  skill  not  to 
be  trusted.  Hahnemann  is  no  longer  able  to  endure  the  fatigue 
of  attending  to  the  multiplicity  of  cases  crowded  upon  him. 
Madame  Hahnemann  is  universally  confided  in,  respected  and 
beloved,  especially  by  the  poor." 

"I  can  well  believe  it.  Is  Hahnemann  assisted  by  any  of  his 
children  in  the  same  manner  as  by  his  wife  ?" 

"Not  exactly  in  the  same  manner,  but  still  he  is  assisted  by 
them.  One  of  his  daughters,  and  a  fine,  intelligent  girl  she  is, 
has  the  sole  superintendence  of  an  enormous  folio,  containing  the 
names  of  all  his  correspondents  and  the  dates  of  their  letters; 
also  of  several  other  folios,  containing  the  letters  themselves, 
arranged  in  alphabetical  order.  His  other  children  are  of  service 
to  him  in  various  ways.  To  assist  him  is  their  chief  delight. 
As  I  told  you  before,  I  never  beheld  a  more  united  family." 

"Miss  Hahnemann's  services  alone  must  spare  the  doctor  a 
vast  deal  of  trouble." 

"Yes,  but  still  every  moment  of  his  time  is  employed.  He  is 
the  most  systematic  man  imaginable.  In  his  library  you  will 
find  thirty -six  quarto  volumes,  his  register  of  consultation,  writ- 


384  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

ten  entirely  by  himself.  Apropos,  his  hand  writing  is  really 
worth  seeing.  What  do  you  think  of  a  man  eighty- four  years  of 
age  who  writes  a  hand  firm  as  a  man's  ought  to  be,  fine  enough 
to  be  a  woman's,  and  elegant  enough  to  be  traced  on  copper 
plate,  and  this  without  spectacles?" 

"Think?  Why,  I  think  I  have  wondered  at  what  you  have 
told  me  as  long  as  I  could  wonder,  and  now  I  can  only  come  to 
the  conclusion  that  Hahnemann  and  his  wife  should  be  ranked 
among  the  curiosities  of  Paris,  and  that  the  sight  seeing  stranger 
has  not  beheld  all  the  marvels  until  he  has  seen  them." 

Our  conversation  was  interrupted  by  a  valet,  who  announced 
that  Monsieur  le  Docteur  was  at  leisure  and  would  see  Madame 
la  Contesse. 

She  bade  me  good  morning,  saying:  "  It  will  be  your  turn 
next,  I  shall  not  keep  you  waiting  long." 

I  hope  not,  thought  I,  as  a  glance  at  the  clock  informed  me 
that  it  was  somewhat  more  than  three  hours  since  I  first  entered 
the  house. 

A  few  moments  after  Madame  de  R.  left  me  I  was  startled 
by  hearing  the  same  valet  distinctly  pronounce  my  name, 
somewhat  Frenchified,  and  announce  that  Monsieur  le  Docteur 
was  ready  to  receive  me.  I  was  too  much  surprised  to  do  any- 
thing but  stare,  until  I  remembered  that  I  had  placed  my  card 
in  his  hand  some  three  hours  before.  I  arose  and  followed  him. 
He  led  the  way  through  the  same  apartments  I  had  traversed 
on  entering.  The  doctor's  reception  chamber  was  situated  at 
the  further  end  of  the  suite.  Throwing  open  a  door  he  loudly 
announced  me  and  retired. 

I  stood  in  the  presence  of  Monsieur  le  Docteur  and  Madame 
Hahnemann.  The  chamber  I  now  entered  was  more  simply 
decorated  than  any  I  had  visited.  In  the  centre  of  the  room 
stood  a  long  table;  at  its  head  a  slightly  elevated  platform  held 
a  plain  looking  desk  covered  with  books.  In  front  of  the  desk 
sat  Madame  Hahnemann  with  a  blank  v^olume  open  before  her 
and  a  gold  pen  in  her  hand.  Hahnemann  was  reclining  in  a 
comfortable  arm  chair  on  one  side  of  the  table.  They  rose  to  re- 
ceive me,  and  I  presented  Madame  Hahnemann  a  letter  from 
Herr  Dr.  Hirschfeldt,  of  Bremen,  an  eminent  physician,  who  had 
formerly  been  a  pupil  of  Hahnemann's. 

While  Madame  Hahnemann  was  glancing  through  the  letter  I 


HEI.EN  Berkley's  story  continued.  385 

had  an  opportunity  of  taking  a  survey  of  Hahnemann's  person, 
for  he  had  not  yet  resumed  his  seat.  His  slender  and  diminu- 
tive form  was  enveloped  in  a  flowered  dressing  gown  of  rich 
materials,  and  too  comfortable  in  appearance  to  be  of  other  than 
of  Parisian  make.  The  crown  of  his  large,  beautifuUj^  propor- 
tioned head  was  covered  by  a  skull  cap  of  black  velvet.  From 
beneath  it  strayed  a  few  thin  snowy  locks,  which  clustered  about 
his  noble  forehead,  and  spoke  of  the  advanced  age  which  the 
lingering  freshness  of  his  florid  complexion  seemed  to  deny. 
His  eyes  were  dark,  deep  set,  glittering  and  full  of  animation. 

As  he  greeted  me  he  removed  from  his  mouth  a  long  painted 
pipe,  the  bowl  of  which  nearly  reached  to  his  knees.  But  after 
the  first  salutation  it  was  instantly  resumed ;  as  I  was  apprized 
by  the  volumes  of  blue  smoke  which  began  to  curl  about  his 
head  as  though  to  veil  it  from  my  injudicious  scrutiny, 

Madame  Hahnemann  gracefully  expressed  her  gratification  at 
the  perusal  of  the  letter,  read  a  few  lines  of  it  to  her  husband  in 
an  under  tone,  and  made  several  courteous  remarks  to  me;  while 
the  doctor  bowed  without  again  removing  his  long  pipe.  It  was 
evident  that  he  did  not  immediately  recognize  Dr.  Hirschfeldt's 
name ;  and  he  was  too  much  accustomed  to  receive  letters  of  in- 
troduction to  pay  any  attention  to  their  contents. 

Madame  Hahnemann  placed  herself  at  the  desk,  with  the 
doctor  on  her  right  hand  and  myself  on  her  left.  I  stated  the 
principal  object  of  my  visit,  attempting  to  direct  my  conversation 
to  Hahnemann,  rather  than  to  his  wife.  But  I  soon  found  that 
this  was  not  salon  en  regie.  Madame  Hahnemann  invariably 
replied,  asking  a  multiplicity  of  questions,  and  noting  the 
minutest  symptoms  of  the  case  as  fast  as  my  answers  were  given. 
Several  times  she  referred  to  her  husband,  who  merely  replied 
with  his  pipe  between  his  teeth,  "Yes,  my  child,"  or  "Good, 
my  child,  good."  And  these  were  the  only  words  that  I  as  yet 
had  heard  him  utter.  After  sometime  spent  in  this  manner, 
Madame  Hahnemann  accidental!}^  asked:  "Where  was  your 
friend  first  attacked?" 

"In  Germany,"  I  replied. 

Hahnemann  had  been  listening  attentively,  although  he  had 
not  spoken.  The  instant  I  uttered  these  words  his  whole 
countenance  brightened  as  though  a  sunbeam  had  suddenly 
fallen  across  it,  and  he  exclaimed  in  an  animated  tone:     "  Have 


386  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

you  been  in  Germany?  You  speak  German,  don't  you?"  The 
conversation  had  hitherto  been  carried  on  in  French,  but  the 
read}'  "Certainly"  with  which  I  answered  his  question  ap- 
parently gave  him  unfeigned  pleasure. 

He  immediately  commenced  a  conversation  in  his  native 
tongue,  inquiring  how  I  was  pleased  with  Germany,  what  I 
thought  of  the  inhabitants,  their  customs,  whether  I  found  the 
language  difficult,  how  I  was  impressed  with  the  scenery,  and 
continuing  an  enthusiastic  strain  of  eulogium  upon  his  beloved 
country  for  some  time.  Then  he  asked  from  whom  was  my 
letter.  When  I  pronounced  the  name  of  Dr.  Hirschfeldt,  which 
he  had  listened  to  so  coldly  before,  he  expressed  the  deepest  inter- 
est in  his  welfare,  and  spoke  of  him  with  mingled  affection  and 
esteem. 

I  was  too  much  delighted  with  the  doctor's  animated  and 
feeling  remarks  to  change  the  topic.  Yet  I  felt  that  he  had 
lost  sight,  and  was  fast  inducing  me  to  do  the  same,  of  the 
primary  object  of  my  visit.  Madame  Hahnemann,  however, 
though  she  smiled  and  joined  in  the  conversation,  had  not  for- 
gotten the  host  of  good  people  who  were  taking  lessons  of 
patience  in  the  ante-chambers.  She  finally  put  an  end  to  the 
discourse  by  a  gentle  admonition  to  her  husband,  warning  him 
that  he  must  not  fatigue  himself  before  the  hours  devoted  to 
business  were  half  spent. 

Turning  to  me,  she  apologized  for  the  interruption,  saying 
that  they  received  their  friends  in  the  evening  and  would  be 
happy  to  see  me,  then  immediately  resumed  the  subject  of  my 
friend's  indisposition. 

After  a  few  more  inquiries,  I  received  some  medicine  from 
her  hands,  with  especial  directions  concerning  the  manner  in 
which  it  was  to  be  used.  She  also  presented  me  with  a  paper 
on  which  the  different  kinds  of  iood,  vegetables,  seasoning  and 
odors  which  counteract  the  effects  of  Homoeopathic  remedies 
were  enumerated.  After  cordially  shaking  hands  with  the  kind 
old  man  and  his  talented  and  exemplary  wife,  I  bade  them  good 
morning.  One  of  the  domestics  in  attendance  conducted  me 
down  stairs  and  handed  me  into  the  carriage;  and  I  drove  home, 
passing  along  a  file  of  coaches  stretching  from  Hahnemann's 
door  rather  farther  than  I  could  venture  to  mention  and  expect 
to  be  believed. 


HKivEN  Berkley's  story  continued.  387 

The  favorable  impression  I  had  received  on  my  first  inter- 
view with  Doctor  and  Madame  Hahnemann  was  subsequently 
strengthened  and  confirmed. 

Hahnemann  expressed  the  same  enthusiasm  as  before  at  the 
mention  of  his  own  country,  and  on  hearing  that  I  was  an 
American  made  many  inquiries  about  our  young  land,  and 
especially  concerning  the  progress  of  Homoeopathy.  I  could 
not,  however,  give  him  much  information  which  he  had  not 
previously  received  from  other  lips. 

Hahnemann  amongst  his  innumerable  estimable  qualities, 
possesses  that  of  the  most  indefatigable  industry.  The  pains 
which  he  takes  in  studying  and  examining  a  case  are  almost 
incredible.  He  records  with  precision  the  minutest  symptoms 
of  every  patient,  all  constitutional  ailments,  hereditary  taints 
and  numerous  other  particulars;  never  trusting  his  memory,  and 
only  prescribing  after  a  deliberation  often  tedious,  though 
always  necessary.  To  the  poor  he  has  always  shown  untiring 
benevolence. 

Certain  hours  of  the  day  are  set  apart  for  the  reception  of  per- 
sons unable  to  offer  compensation.  They  are  attended  with 
equal  care,  their  symptoms  recorded,  and  their  diseases  prescribed 
for  with  the  same  precision  which  is  bestowed  upon  the  ha^de 
noblesse  of  the  land.  It  frequently  occurs  that  Hahnemann  is 
so  fatigued  with  his  morning  duties,  that  patients  who  apply  for 
advice  in  the  afternoon  are  placed  under  the  sole  superintend- 
ence of  Madame  Hahnemann.  But  they  seem  to  consider  this 
gifted  couple  one  in  skill,  as  they  are  indeed  one  in  heart. 

Hahnemann  appears  to  take  pleasure  in  confessing  to  the 
world  his  affection,  almost  veneration,  for  his  wife.  Shortly 
after  his  marriage  in  a  reply  to  the  Gallican  Homoeopathic 
Society  of  Paris,  who  had  made  him  their  honorary  president, 
the  following  paragraph  occurs:  "I  love  France  and  her  noble 
people,  so  great,  so  generous,  so  disposed  to  rectify  an  abuse  by 
the  adoption  of  a  new  and  efficient  reform.  This  predilection 
has  been  augmented  in  my  heart  by  my  marriage  with  one  of 
the  noble  daughters  of  France,  in  every  respect  worthy  of  her 
country."* 

*"  Sketch  of  Hahnetnanu  aud  his  wife,  from  the  portfolio  of  one  who 
knew  them."     New  York.     Radde.     1850. 


388  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 


CHAPTER  LXXIII. 

A    CURE    BY    HAHNEMANN — HIS    PREFACE    TO    ARSENICUM — SIX- 
TIETH  ANNIVERSARY   OF   GRADUATION — RULES   OF   FRENCH 
HOMOEOPATHIC    COLLEGE — HOMOEOPATHY    IN   PARIS. 

The  following  letter,  signed  "A  Lover  of  Hahnemann,"  was 
published  in  the  Homoeopathic  Times  for  February  7,  1852  :* 

"Thirteen  years  ago  I  was  given  up  by  the  Allopathic  doctors 
for  consumption.  A  goodly  number  of  them  had  pronounced  me 
incurable.  At  this  period  a  benevolent  lady  sent  from  Paris  an 
invitation  for  me  to  visit  her  in  that  city,  in  order  that  I  might 
get  the  advice  of  the  immortal  Hahnemann.  At  first  the  doctor 
then  attending  me  sent  word  that  I  was  too  weakly  to  under- 
take the  journey,  but  the  lady  persisted  and  he  yielded. 

"  In  a  month  after  I  was  examined  and  sounded  by  Hahne- 
mann, who  smiled  as  he  stroked  my  head  and  said:  'I  am  glad 
you  have  come  to  me  in  time,  I  shall  cure  you.'  Now  I  had 
been  examined  by  more  than  twenty  eminent  Allopathists  (Sir 
James  Clark  being  one  of  them),  all  of  whom  thought  me  beyond 
human  skill;  but  the  old,  bald-headed,  persecuted  Hahnemann, 
the  great  medical  benefactor  of  mankind,  after  an  hour's  exami- 
nation of  my  lungs,  said:  'I  shall  cure  you.'  After  being  under 
his  treatment  for  eight  months,  I  returned  to  Scotland  com- 
pletel)^  cured. 

"I  may  mention  that  the  good  old  man  (for  whose  good  doing 
to  me  and  to  mankind  I  have  often  felt  grateful  to  God)  refused 
to  take  a  single  farthing  for  his  advice  and  medicine,  although 
he  knew  that  the  lady  who  took  so  much  interest  in  me  was  in 
opulent  circumstances." 

It  was  in  the  year  1839  that  Hahnemann  made  his  last  contri- 
bution to  the  "Materia  Medica,"  the  preface  to  the  provings  of 
Arse7iicum.     He  says:t 

"The  mentioning  oi  Arsenic  c?i\\^  up  powerful  recollections  in 
my  soul. 

*Hom.  Times,  London,  Vol.  iii.,  p.  416. 

It  is  likely  that  this  letter  was  written  by  Mr.  Young,  whose  cure  is  nar- 
rated at  length  in  a  previous  chapter. 

t  Hahnemann's  "Chronic  Diseases,"  New  York,  Vol.  v.,  p.  361. 


PREFACE   TO    ARSENICUM.  389 

"  111  creating  the  iron  the  All  Merciful  permitted  his  children 
to  transform  it,  at  their  choice,  either  into  the  murderous  dagger 
or  the  blessed  plowshare,  and  to  use  it  either  for  their  destruc- 
tion or  preservation.  How  much  more  happy  mankind  would 
be  if  they  used  God's  gifts  only  for  the  purpose  of  accomplishing 
the  good.  It  is  his  will  that  we  should  do  this,  and  for  this  end 
we  have  been  created. 

"It  is  not  the  fault  of  Him  who  loves  us  all  that  we  abuse 
powerful  medicinal  agents,  administering  them  either  in  too 
powerful  doses  or  in  cases  for  which  they  are  not  suitable,  being 
merely  guided  by  the  caprice  of  miserable  authorities,  and  with- 
out having  taken  the  trouble  to  investigate  the  inherent  virtues 
of  the  drug,  and  to  make  our  selection  depend  upon  the  knowl- 
edge thus  obtained. 

"  If  one  is  found  willing  to  make  that  investigation  in  a  con- 
scientious manner,  those  pretended  authorities  overwhelm  him 
with  their  wrath  as  the  enemy  of  their  comfort,  and  permit  them- 
selves the  most  ignoble  and  malicious  calumnies.  *  sf:  *  i 
hear  it  said  one-tenth  of  a  grain  (of  Arsenic)  is  the  smallest 
weight  used  in  practice.  Who  could  prescribe  less  without  mak- 
ing himself  ridiculous. 

"Indeed,  one- tenth  of  a  grain  sometimes  endangers  life,  and 
giving  less  should  be  contrary  to  rule.  Is  not  this  deriding 
common  sense? 

"Have  the  rules  of  practice  been  established  for  irrational 
slaves  or  for  men  endowed  with  rationality  and  free  will  ?  Who 
or  what  prevents  them  from  giving  a  smaller  dose  when  a  larger 
one  would  prove  dangerous  ?  Obstinacy  ?  Dogmatism  ?  or  what 
other  fetter  of  the  mind  ? 

"  'Yes,'  say  they,  'ArseJiic  would  still  be  hurtful  even  if  we 
used  only  one-hundredth  or  one-thousandth  of  a  grain.  Arsenic, 
even  when  used  in  a  very  small  quantity,  is  nevertheless  a 
virulent  poison;  we  proclaim  this  ex  authoritate .^ 

"  Supposing  you  have  hit  the  truth,  it  must  likewise  be  true 
that  by  diminishing  the  dose  gradually  we  must  finally  arrive 
at  a  quantity  which  has  nothing  of  the  danger  of  your  orthodox 
dose  of  one  tenth  of  a  grain. 

"'Such  a  dose  would  be  something  new  altogether.  What 
sort  of  a  dose  would  that  be  ? ' 

"  Novelty  is  indeed  a  heinous  crime  in  the  eyes  of  the  ortho- 


390  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

dox  doctors,  infatuated  with  the  drugs  of  their  school,  and  whose 
minds  have  lost  all  their  independence  in  the  tyranny  of  hoary 
rules. 

"  What  miserable  law,  or  what  anything  else,  can  prevent  the 
physician,  who  ought  to  be  a  scholar,  a  thinking  and  free  man, 
from  attenuating  a  dose  by  reducing  its  quantity  ? 

"Whj^  should  he  not  give  i-ioo.ooo  or  one-millionth  of  a  grain, 
if  experience  teaches  him  that  one- thousandth  of  a  grain  is  too 
strong?  And  if  he  should  discover  by  experience  that  even 
i-ioo.ooo  of  a  grain  is  still  too  powerful,  why  should  he  not 
reduce  the  dose  to  one  millionth  or  one-billionth  ? 

"And  even  if  this  dose  should  be  too  powerful,  why  not 
descend  to  one-quadrillionth  or  lower. 

"But  here  my  opponents,  suffocating  as  it  were  in  the  bog  of 
hoary  prejudice,  will  exclaim:   'Ha!  ha!  ha!  that  is  nothing!' 

"  Why  not?  Does  a  substance  that  has  been  divided  ever  so 
minutely  lose  any  of  its  original  properties?  Even  if  divided, 
as  it  were,  to  an  endless  extent,  does  not  something  of  the 
original  substance  remain  ?  What  sound  mind  should  contra- 
dict this  ? 

"And  if  something  of  the  original  substance  remains,  why 
should  not  that  something  have  some  effect  ?  What  that  effect 
is  cannot  be  decided  speculatively,  but  has  to  be  learned  by 
experience.  Experience  alone  can  decide  whether  this  small 
portion  is  too  feeble  to  relieve  the  disease  for  which  it  is 
suitable." 

Here,  in  his  eighty-fourth  year,  as  a  parting  word  to  his  fol- 
lowers, we  find  this  grand  old  scholar  reiterating  his  oft  told 
saying:  "Try,  only  try  and  do  not  condemn  without  trying." 
And  one  can  readily  see  that  his  one  idea  is  to  find  the  very- 
smallest  possible  quantity  with  which  to  make  the  cure.  It 
always  was  his  aim. 

On  August  loth,  1839,  Hahnemann  celebrated  the  sixtieth 
anniversary^  of  his  graduation  at  Erlangen.  The  day  was 
observed  with  appropriate  festivities.  The  following  account 
may  be  found  in  Stapf's  Archiv.^ 

"  Paris,  August  18,  1839. — A  few  days  ago  the  sixtieth  anni- 
versary of  Hahnemann's  doctorate  was  celebrated  in  his  hotel  in 

*Archiv  f.  d.  horn.  Heilkunst,  Vol.  xvii.,  part  3.  Allg.  horn.  Zeit., 
Vol.  xvi.,  p.  95. 


SIXTIETH    ANNIVERSARY.  39 1 

Milan  street.  The  venerable  man,  still  active  and  vigorous, 
although  in  his  eighty- fourth  year,  was  congratulated  by  almost 
all  the  nations  of  Europe,  partly  by  letter,  but  mostly  by  repre- 
sentatives. Poems  were  recited  in  almost  all  the  European  lan- 
guages. The  German  muse  was  the  only  one  lacking;  and  Dr. 
Jahr,  editor  of  the  widely  circulated  "  Repertory,"  was  the  only 
German  physician  of  that  time  who  saved  his  country's  honor 
by  reciting  an  old  poem. 

"It  will  be  difl&cult  for  posterity  to  comprehend  this  indiffer- 
ence of  Germany  to  one  of  her  sons,  a  benefactor  who  will  be 
the  honor  and  pride  of  the  German  name  thousands  of  years 
hence.  To  us  this  is  easily  explainable.  There  are  so  many 
great  men  in  the  little  cities  of  German}^  men  who  have  such 
immensely  great  reforms  in  proportion  to  their  little  code  of 
medical  practice,  and  such  ponderous  volumes  in  contrast  with 
the  little  "  Organon,"  that  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  the 
little  man  in  Milan  street  should  thrive  in  forgetfulness.  It  is 
otherwise  in  other  countries.  Thither  the  names  of  these 
German  country,  village  and  city  celebrities  have  not  yet  found 
their  way;  only  the  name  of  the  founder  of  Homoeopathy  is 
known  to  the  people.  His  name  is  in  all  mouths  and  each  new 
year,  which  the  active  old  man  adds  to  the  great  number  of  the 
old  ones,  since  it  illustrates  anew  the  truth  and  efiicacy  of  his 
doctrine,  is  celebrated  as  a  new  triumph.  To  all  appearance 
Hahnemann  will  reach  the  age  of  one  hundred  years.  He  looks 
as  yet  like  a  man  of  sixty;  and  what  is  more,  his  mind  has  still 
all  the  strength  of  its  maturity.  He  still  practices,  thinks  and 
writes  just  as  he  did  a  half  century  ago;  in  fact,  he  possibly  does 
still  more  of  each  and  does  it  better.  But  why,  if  the  German 
youth  forget  their  master,  does  not  German  poetry  at  least 
remember  him  ?  Has  a  German  poet  never  been  sick  ?  Or  does 
the  German  poetry  of  pain  feel  itself  in  kinship  with  the  painful- 
ness  of  Allopathy?  The  German  science  of  music,  however,  has 
made  glorious  this  beautiful  eventide  of  Hahnemann's  life. 
It  has  abundantly  supplied  what  the  art  of  poetry  omitted. 
The  celebrated  Clara  Wieck,  a  country  woman  of  Hahnemann's, 
enraptured  the  company  of  celebrities  with  the  most  beautiful 
strains  of  music;  and  a  young  German  dilettante  intoned  her 
famous  voice  in  praise  of  the  man  whose  triumph  they  were  cele- 
brating.    The   renowned    violoncellist.    Max    Bohrer,    fittingly 


392  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

closed  the  musical  performances.  We  think  that  Clara  Wieck 
will  next  season  dominate  the  musical  throne  of  Paris,  in  spite 
of  the  presence  of  the  first  pianists  of  Europe;  indeed,  the 
Russian  and  English  nobility  are  vieing  with  each  other  to 
secure  her  for  the  year  of  1840." 

This  article  continues  with  a  history  of  the  growth  of  Homoe- 
opathy in  Sicily,  Italy,  France,  England  and  North  America. 
As  one  would  expect,  three  or  four  lines  only  are  devoted  to  the 
latter  place. 

Croserio  mentions  this  sixtieth  fete  day  as  follows:*  "On  the 
tenth  of  August  last  we  celebrated  in  Dr.  Hahnemann's  hotel, 
Milan  street.  No.  i,  the  sixtieth  anniversary  of  his  acquiring  the 
degree  of  doctor  of  medicine.  Almost  all  European  nations  had 
sent  their  representatives  to  congratulate  the  illustrious  old  gen- 
tleman, who,  notwithstanding  his  eighty-four  years,  is  endowed 
with  perfect  health.  Poems  in  his  praise  were  read  in  almost 
every  European  language." 

One  of  the  odes  delivered  on  this  occasion  was  by  the  young 
physician,  Dr.  J.  B.  Mure.  It  was  published  in  pamphlet  form 
and  also  in  his  book:  "  Doctrine  de  I'Ecole  de  Rio  de  Janeiro  et 
Pathogenesie  Bresilienne.     Paris,  1849." 

In  a  letter  dated  Paris,  October  20,  1839,  Dr.  Croserio  writes 
to  Dr.  Neidhard  as  follows:!  "Under  the  name  'Institut  de  la 
Medicine  Homeopathique'  we  have  erected  and  shall  open  in  a 
few  weeks  in  the  Rue  de  la  Harpe,  No.  93,  in  the  immediate 
neighborhood  of  the  School  of  Medicine,  a  large  institution  for 
the  following  purposes: 

"I.  To  teach  students  the  theory  and  practice  of  Homoeopa- 
thy, by  public  lectures. 

"2.  To  spread  the  benefit  of  Homoeopathy  among  the  lower 
classes  of  the  capital,  by  giving  consultations  gratis  to  those  who 
will  personally  apply  for  them. 

"3.  To  give  advice  in  writing  to  those  patients  in  the  country 
and  in  the  provinces  of  France,  who,  having  no  Homoeopathic 
physicians  near  themselves,  apply  for  it. 

"4.  To  prepare  Homoeopathic  medicines  according  to  the 
method  of  Dr.  Mure. 


*  Horn.  Exam.,  Vol.  i.,  p.  103. 

^  Horn.  Exam.,  Vol.  i.,  pp.  104,  346. 


A   CURE    BY    HAHNEMANN.  393 

"5.  To  translate  into  the  French  language  practical  works  on 
Homoeopathy. 

"6.  To  publish,  under  the  title  of  "1,6  Propagateur  de  I'Hom- 
ceopathie,"  a  monthly  periodical,  by  which  all  new  Homoeopathic 
works  and  periodicals  will  be  reviewed,  etc. 

"7.  To  procure  for  those  Homoeopathic  physicians  and  other 
individuals  in  the  provinces,  or  in  foreign  countries,  who  would 
apply  for  them,  Homoeopathic  books,  instruments,  medicines  and 
practical  advice  in  particular  cases. 

"8.  To  open  a  cabinet  de  lecture  where  students,  physicians, 
may  read  or  borrow  all  Homoeopathic  books  and  periodicals, 
published  in  France  or  other  countries. 

"9.  To  consult  strangers  who  come  to  Paris,  either  for  study- 
ing Homoeopathy,  or  for  taking  general  information  on  the  state 
of  Homoeopathy,  or  for  buying  Homoeopathic  medicines,  books, 
etc. 

"10.  To  serve  as  a  central  point  for  Homoeopaths  of  all  nations, 
and  to  nominate  correspondents  for  that  purpose  in  all  foreign 
countries. 

"  For  the  present  I  can  inform  you  that  Dr.  Jahr  will  teach 
Materia  Medica  Pura,  and  the  German  as  the  Homoeopathic  lan- 
guage; Dr.  Mure,  Pharmacology  and  Mnemonics  applied  to  the 
Materia  Medica;  and  that  I  have  accepted  the  Homoeopathic 
clinic." 

In  another  letter,  dated  July  i,  1840,  Dr.  Croserio  writes: 

"Two  Homoeopathic  institutions  have  been  established  in  this 
city  during  the  past  year,  one  in  the  Rue  de  la  Harpe,  the  other 
in  the  Rue  Gil-le-Coeur.  Both  are  situated  near  the  School  of 
Medicine,  and  in  both,  courses  of  public  lectures  are  delivered  on 
Homoeopathy  and  the  Materia  Medica,  and  public  consultations 
have  been  organized,  which  are  frequented  daily  by  sixty  to  one 
hundred  invalids  from  the  laboring  classes  of  society." 

At  this  time  there  were  also  two  well-appointed  Homoeopathic 
pharmacies  in  Paris.  The  first  one  was  opened  by  Henri  Petroz. 
In  1833  ^s  began  to  prepare  medicines  and  put  up  the  prescrip- 
tions  of    a  few  physicians  and  in   1837    he   opened   his  phar- 


■  Trans.  World's  Horn.  Convention,"  1876,  p.  154. 


394  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 


CHAPTER  LXXIV. 

PLEASANT  HOME  LIFE — CORRESPONDENCE  WITH  HIS  DAUGHTERS. 

Albrecht  in  speaking  of  the  pleasant  relations  of  the  daughters 
with  the  household  at  Paris  writes  as  follows:*  "  The  following 
family  letters  furnish  us  the  best  proof  that  Hahnemann,  al- 
though he  found  himself  impelled  to  be  in  Paris,  in  man)^  ways 
a  different  person  from  what  he  had  previously  been  at  Coethen, 
had  remained  just  the  same  in  his  affection  for  his  daughters  left 
behind  in  Germany.  It  is  as  if  he  considered  it  his  duty  to 
recompense  them  in  some  measure  for  their  separation  from  him 
by  more  frequent  proofs  of  his  remembrance  and  enduring  affec- 
tion. 

"  Hahnemann  does  not,  indeed,  discuss  public  affairs  with  his 
daughters,  very  seldom  mentions  the  system  of  medicine  founded 
by  himself,  and  does  not  expatiate  in  an  exchange  of  weighty 
ideas  and  opinions;  nay,  he  is,  in  these  letters,  entirely  a  father, 
nothing  but  a  father,  a  father  who  enshrines  the  existence  of  his 
children  in  the  inmost  depths  of  his  heart,  concerns  himself 
about  all  their  affairs,  sympathizes  intensely  in  all  their  sorrows 
and  afflictions,  counsels  and  consoles  and  encourages  them, 
directs  them  to  come  soon  to  Paris  to  see  him,  if  they  complain 
about  his  absence,  and  then  gives  them  some  errand  or  commis- 
sion to  perform,  requests  them  to  send  him  a  greeting  in  a  letter. 
In  the  postscript,  and  with  the  accustomed  superscription,  there 
is  always  the  never-forgotten  message,  '  a  greeting  from  Melanie.' 

"  Festal  and  triumphant  tones  resound  quite  often  in  these 
pastoral  symphonies.  But  let  each  read  for  himself  what  pleases 
him  from  these  letters,  which  have  been  selected  from  a  large  col- 
lection of  similar  import.  We  follow  the  chronological  order, 
deviating  from  it  only  in  the  first  letter. 

"This  letter,  belonging  apparently  to  the  year  1839,  at  which 
time  Hahnemann  was  already  shining  as  a  star  of  the  first  mag- 
nitude in  the  heaven  of  erudition  in  Paris,  transfers  us  to  the 
sisterly  circle  of  Hahnemann,  his  daughters,  and  serves  in  some 
measure  as  a  commentary  on  their  opposite  dispositions.  A 
*''Biograph.  Denkmal,"  p.  116. 


PI.EASANT   HOME   LIFE.  395 

sister  in  Paris,  writing  to  her  sisters  at  Coethen,  describes  in 
vivid,  but  plain  language,  an  important  festal  event  in  the  life  of 
their  beloved  father,  and  promises  to  tell  them  still  more  of  all 
the  almost  indescribable  splendors  of  the  celebration  when  she 
comes,  'right  soon,  to  see  them.'  The  gentle  and  tender  breath 
of  childlike  love  breathes  in  every  word  and  wafts  it  caressingly 
to  the  heart  of  the  reader.  Her  father  and  his  wife  read  the 
sisterly  letter  before  it  is  mailed  to  Germany,  and  both  add  to  it 
an  independent  postscript  in  a  brief  note  of  their  own.  More- 
over, the  letter  contains  so  many  and  various  interesting  par- 
ticulars that  the  attention  becomes  enlisted  more  and  more 
closely.  This  is  this  three  part  letter : 
' ' '  Dear  Sisters  Louise  and  Lottie  : 

"  'It  affords  me  unspeakable  joy  to  write  you  also  something 
about  our  beautiful  festival.  First  of  all,  mother  and  father 
(who  are  perfectly  well  and  cheerful),  received  a  very  handsome 
silver  and  gold  cup  on  the  upper  part  of  which  is  inscribed, 
Sante,  and  on  the  lower,  Zuni  6oth  Doctorat.  Thus  began  the 
day  which  was  i  eplete  with  pleasure  and  joy  ;  then  came  one  of 
the  greatest  violoncellists  in  Europe,  named  Bohrer,  who  fairly 
surfeited  us  with  the  sweets  of  music  during  the  whole  day  un- 
til evening  ;  then  the  whole  company  assembled,  a  vast  throng 
of  ladies  and  gentlemen,  who  brought  beautiful  flowers  and  re- 
cited admirable  poems.  After  this  we  had  the  most  delightful 
music ;  the  celebrated  Clara  Wieck,  who  is  now  singing  here  in 
Paris,  gave  us  the  pleasure  of  her  brilliant  musical  talent. 

"  'She  and  the  violoncellist  charmed  us  so  much  that  we  were 
perfectly  entranced.  The  vast  saloon  where  we  were  was 
splendidly  adorned  with  beautiful  oil  paintings,  which  mother 
had  arranged  tastefully  and  illuminated  brilliantly.  More  than 
one  hundred  wax  lights  were  burning. 

' '  '  Among  the  company  was  a  young  physician  from  Lyons, 
named  Mure,  who  had  composed  a  capital  poem  in  praise  of 
father.  He  declaimed  it,  too,  so  grandly,  that  it  thrilled  my  in- 
most soul.  There  were  several  more  who  recited  very  beautiful 
poems.  In  short  we  had  a  splendid  time.  The  festivities  lasted 
till  about  three  o'clock  in  the  morning.  And  you,  as  well  as 
every  friend,  would  have  imagined  yourself  in  love  with  the  en- 
tertainment, but  you  especially,  dear  sisters,  because  your  duti- 
ful  letters   had   made  a    delightful    impression    upon  our  dear 


396  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

parents,  for  which  they  thank  you  most  heartily.  Mother  does 
this  particularly,  and  thanks  you  for  your  affectionate  letter  in 
which  you  expressed  that  pretty  wish.  You  dear  little  Wiesy, 
you  ask  whether  the  stockings  sent  to  father  will  answer?  To  be 
sure  they  will ;  they  fit  very  well,  and  you  may  knit  the  rest 
just  like  them.  Father  sends  you  many  thanks  for  your  great 
pains  and  skill. 

"  'I  am  glad  to  hear  that  good  Mrs.  Lehmann  is  so  well  and 
also  dear  old  Mrs.  Schrceder.  I  send  them  both  my  heartiest 
greetings.  I  read  with  sincere  regret  that  IvOttie  is  ill.  May 
God,  our  only  Deliverer,  help  her!  I  send  herewith  a  couple  of 
flowers  for  you,  so  that  you  also  may  have  a  token  of  the  cele- 
bration. They  are  at  the  same  time  a  souvenir  of  dear  father's 
6oth  doctorate.  In  September  I  shall  set  out  to  come  to  you,  and 
hope  to  find  you  all  very  well  and  in  the  best  of  cheer. 

' '  '  This  will  be  my  last  letter  before  starting.  You  need  have 
no  anxiety  for  I  shall  be  delayed  somewhat  on  the  way,  as  you 
already  know,  because  I  cannot  yet  drag  one  foot  after  the  other 
on  account  of  my  rheumatism.  Adieu!  Ma\^  you  continue  very 
well  meanwhile.  Give  my.  love  to  all  our  dear  friends.  In  spirit 
you  are  already  embraced  by  your  loving  sister, 

"  '  Amalie  Liebe,  geb.  Hahnemann.' 
^^  ^  Dear  Children: 

"  'I  thank  you  for  the  sincere  wishes  you  sent  to  greet  my  loth 
of  August  festival.  I  have  accomplished  them,  thanks  to  our 
merciful  Heavenly  Father  ;  and  along  with  my  Melanie,  have 
kept  your  remembrance  thereby  in  sincerest  affection. 

"  'Your  devoted  father, 

"  S.  Hahnemann. 

"'My  compliments    and   thanks  to  Councillor  Lehmann.     I 
shall  write  to  him  next. 
' '  '  Dear  Lottie  and  Louise  : 

"  '  I  received  your  letter  with  great  pleasure  and  I  thank  you 
for  your  kind  wishes.  I  duly  received  your  previous  letter  also, 
The  expression  of  your  friendship  will  always  be  very  dear  to  me. 
I  wish  you  good  health  and  much  happiness. 

"  'Melanie  Hahnemann.' 

"The  grateful  daughters  do  not  forget  to  acknowledge  to 
their  far-away  father  their  participation  in  the  celebration  of  his 
birthway  and  in  the  jubilee  of  his  doctorate.   Nor  does  the  father 


CORRESPONDENCE  WITH   HIS   CHILDREN.  397 

forget  to  acknowledge  to  his  daughters  his  joy  at  their  manifes- 
tation of  such  dutifuhiess. 


"  'Dear  ChildreJi: 

"  'Your  hearty  congratulations  to  my  festivals  of  loth  of  April 
and  of  loth  of  August  are  enshrined  in  my  heart,  and  I  send 
you  many  and  profoundest  thanks.  May  God  grant  you  good 
health  and  enable  you  to  live  all  your  days  in  cheerful  content- 
ment. My  dear  Melanie,  too,  wishes  you  all  the  good  things  of 
life  that  are  to  be  enjoyed. 

"  'Your  devoted  father, 

"'S.Hahnemann. 
"  'April  2^,  i8jp. 

"  'I  hereby  return  thanks  to  Councillor  Lehmann  for  the  medi- 
cines. My  dear  Melanie  and  I  both  send  our  warmest  greetings 
to  him,  his  devoted  wife  and  lovely  daughters.'  " 


"  'Dear  Children: 

"  'Accept  my  thanks  for  your  kind  wishes  respecting  my  last 
loth  of  August  festivities.  I  know  that  your  intentions  are  the 
kindliest  toward  both  Melanie  and  myself.  Morover,  live  a 
cheerful  and  happy  life  like  good  children,  and  continue  to  love 
us  as  dearly  as  we  love  you. 

"  'Your  loving  father, 

"  'SamueIv  Hahnemann. 
"  'Paris,  Oclo.  6,  iSjp.'  " 


"The  two  following  somewhat  expressive  letters  were  written 
with  a  similar  motive; 
' '  'Dear  Daughters: 

"  'It  is  my  ardent  wish  that  your  indisposition,  of  which  I  am 
informed  by  your  letter  to  Malehen,^  may  have  become  changed 
again  to  lasting  health;  for  I  desire  very  much  to  have  the 
satisfaction  of  thinking  that  you  are  well.  I  thank  you  heartily 
for  your  kind  wishes  both  at  the  beginning  of  the  year  and  on 
my  birthday.  I  know  that  you  meant  both  from  the  depths  of 
your  hearts;  and  this  is  and  will  always  be  to  me  a  cherished 
recollection.  Strive  to  make  yourselves  as  happ}^  as  possible  in 
this  brief  earthly  life,  which  is  the  school  in  which  we  fit  ourselves 
for  eternity;  and  if  you  earnestly  wish  to  do  so,  it  will  not  be 
*  Meaning  Amalie. 


398  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

difficult  to  accomplish.     Continue  steadfast  my  good  daughters, 
I  love  you.     You  devoted  father, 

" 'SamueIv  Hahnemann. 
*•  'Paris,  April  17,  1838. 

"'My  dear  Melanie  has  wrested  ever  so  much  time  from  her 
many  and  varied  household  duties  so  as  to  get  my  picture  ready 
to  send  to  you  (and  lyehmann).  Every  one  here  thinks  it  bears 
a  striking  resemblance  to  the  original,  Melanie,  too,  writes  to 
you  in  the  German  language,  since  she  can  then  generally  enable 
you  to  comprehend  what  she  means.'  " 


"  'Dear  Children: 

"  'We  express  to  you  our  sincerest  thanks  for  your  kind  wishes 
as  well  as  for  the  little  songs  set  to  music,  which  ought  to  cheer 
our  leisure  hours,  which  are  so  rare,  and  should  remind  us  of 
yourselves. 

' '  'Take  courage!  Your  wish  to  visit  Paris  can  soon  be  gratified, 
for  they  are  making  progress  with  the  railways  everywhere  in 
Germany;  and  they  are  already  beginning  to  extend  the  railway 
as  far  as  Frankfort  on  the  Main,  and  so  in  France  as  far  as  the 
Rhine.  Therefore  be  tranquil,  and  live  in  good  hope,  just  as  we 
do.  You  have  still  a  great  many  advantages  over  many  thousands 
of  people,  no  lack  of  anything  whatever,  for  the  support  of  life, 
and  withal  a  good  name  in  the  estimation  of  everybody,  and  good 
friends.  And  then,  too,  we  love  you.  What  more  do  you  lack 
to  make  you  contented?  Therefore,  thank  God,  our  Preserver, 
who  never  forsakes  us,  and  lead  a  tranquil  and  contented  life. 
The  Almighty  demands  nothing  more  from  you,  dear  children. 
I  remain, 

"  'Your  loving  father, 

" 'Samuel  Hahnemann. 
"  '  Paris,  June  loth. 

"  'I  received  with  pleasure  grandfather's  seal  and  presented 
it  to  my  dear  wife,  who  will  have  a  similar  one  made  for  Louise. 
"  '  Dear  Children: 

"  'I  wish  you  the  greatest  happiness. 

"  '  Melanie  H.\hnemann.'  " 


"  Here  is  a  letter  from  the  memorable  year  of  1840.     We  per- 
ceive from  it  that  Hahnemann  lived  entirely  shut  off  from  public 


CORRESPONDENCE    WITH    HIS    CHILDREN,  399 

events,  heard  the  rumor  of  war  and  revolution  only  behind  closed 
shutters,  and  stood  majestically  alone  and  out  of  the  reach  of  the 
tumult  of  the  present  generation  of  mortals.  He  says  in  this 
letter:  '  You  have  no  need  to  be  concerned  about  the  dis- 
quietude in  Paris,  for  this  will  become  far  greater  in  time  than  it 
is  at  present.  We  live  close  by  a  bar^iere  ;  and  in  our  walled  city 
there  is  never  any  disquietude.  If  there  should  be  an  uprising, 
we  shall  go  quickly  to  friends  in  the  country  ;  but  this  is  by  no 
means  to  be  feared.'  " 

In  this  very  interesting  series  of  letters,  that  show  fully  the 
good  feeling  between  the  old  doctor,  in  Paris,  and  his  lonely 
daughters  in  the  little  town  in  Germany,  now  appears  the  last 
which  Hahnemann  wrote  to  his  daughters.  Albrecht  writes: 
"  It  is  not  without  such  an  emotion,  as  we  ever  willingly  conse- 
crate to  the  shades  of  the  ever  memorable  man,  that  we  take  up 
the  last  letter  which  Hahnemann  sent  to  his  beloved  daugh- 
ters prior  to  his  death.  This  letter  is  characterized  by  that 
tenderness  of  feeling  which  the  mother  is  accustomed  to  mani- 
fest unconsciously  and  involuntarily,  by  reason  of  undisguised 
separation  from  her  son.  We  still  derive  consolation  from  this 
letter.  It  shows  thet  Hahnemann  suffered  but  a  short  time 
previous  to  his  death. 
"  '  Dear  Children: 

"  '  We  have  received  your  letters  so  full  of  kind  wishes,  and 
we  wish  you  also  all  the  possible  good  to  which  health  specially 
belongs. 

"  '  Keep  in  good  health.  We  are  now  in  the  midst  of  winter. 
I  enjoy  my  life  as  much  as  business  permits  me,  and  shall  go  to- 
day, as  I  did  last  Thursday,  to  the  Italian  Opera  until  midnight 
in  company  with  my  dear  Melanie  and  Father  d'Hervilly. 

' '  '  The  little  book  is  precious  to  me.  I  thank  you  for  the 
great  trouble  that  it  must  have  cost  you  to  procure  it.  I  can  use 
it,  although  it  is  not  the  one  I  meant — the  one  which  the  Torgau 
doctor  (I  think  his  name  is  Lehmann)  had  written  anonymously 
at  the  time,  and  in  which  the  wonderful  cures  of  Grabe  are 
named.  It  was  printed  at  Torgau,  and  not  at  Zerbst,  as  was  the 
one  sent  to  me.  This  doctor  must  still  have  some  of  them  re- 
maining. Perhaps,  if  he  is  still  living,  he  will  sell  you  one. 
Give  him  my  compliments.  Then  the  Coethen  publisher  has  no 
more  copies  of  the  weekly  paper  published  at  that  time,  in  which 
he  speaks  of  Grabe? 


400  LIFE    OP    HAHNEMANN. 

' ' '  But  I  should  be  sorry  if  it  should  give  you  too  much  trouble. 
Please  write  to  me  what  expense  570U  have  incurred  in  the  matter. 

"  'Ask  Dr.  Lehmann,  in  my  name,  for  one  or  two  grains  of  the 
third  trituration  of  Mercuriics  sohibilis,  which  was  not  in  the 
box  sent  to  me. 

'"My  dear  Melanie  sends  you  much  love  along  with   mine. 

She  wishes  to  know  whether  Louise  has  received  father's  ring 

through  Malchen,  to  whom  it  was  sent  from  Weimer  to  Dresden. 

May  you  live  in  health,  comfort  and  contentment,  dear  children! 

"  'Your  loving  father, 

"  '  Samuel  Hahnemann. 

"  '  Paris,  January  §,  ^^43-^  " 

Dr.  Lehmann,  so  long  his  faithful  assistant  atCoethen,  remained 
always  his  dear  friend.  He  prepared  his  medicines  up  to  his  death, 
Hahnemann  sending  to  Coethen  for  them.  At  Hahnemann's 
request  he  had  his  bust  taken.  It  is  written:  *"The  bust  of 
these  two  great  men  should,  like  the  originals,  stand  together. 
So  Hahnemann  directed." 

Dr.  Lehmann  died  at  Coethen  on  January  g,  1865,  aged  77 
years,  t 


CHAPTER  LXXV. 

EIGHTY  fifth  BIRTHDAY — CURE  OF  THE  CHILD  OF  LEGOUVE. 

The  birthday  of  1840  was  celebrated  in  the  usual  delightful 
manner. 

The  following  letter  appeared  in  the  Leipsic  General  Gazette 
on  April  19,  1840,  as  correspondence  from  Paris,  regarding  the 
celebration  of  Hahnemann's  eighty-fifth  birthday: 

"t  Paris,  April  12, -1840.  Day  before  yesterday  Hahnemann 
celebrated  his  eighty-fifth  birthday.  The  elite  of  the  German 
residents  and  many  celebrated  Frenchmen  had  assembled  in  his 
saloons  in  the  evening  to  congratulate  the  aged  Commander-in- 
Chief  of  our  Homoeopathic  Phalanx,  which  is  increasing  every 

*Fischer's  Traus.  "Biog.  Denkmal,"  p.  94 
\Allg.  horn.  Zeit.,  Vol.  Ixx.,  p.  40. 
XAllg.  horn.  Zeit.,  Vol.  xvii.,  p.  287. 


EIGHTY-FIFTH   BIRTHDAY.  40I 

day.  And  it  was  delightful  and  inspiring  to  see  with  what  cor- 
diality these  congratulations  were  given  and  received. 

"One  often  heard  the  heart  of  some  one  who  had  been  deliv- 
ered from  disease  express  itself  to  its  deliverer  with  sincerest 
thankfulness. 

"The  old  reformer  of  medicine,  with  his  lofty  brow  and  kindly 
smiling  face,  was  the  most  life-like  exemplar  of  his  system  of 
healing;  for  there  surely  are  but  few  persons  eighty-five  5^ears 
of  age  who  are  so  active  and  busy  as  he,  and  who,  in  his  pro- 
fession, do  the  honors  in  many  a  crowded  saloon  long  after  mid- 
night. A  rt  and  science  had  combined  to  celebrate  his  birthday 
worthily.  It  was  plainly  perceptible  that  the  Germans  played 
the  chief  role  in  this  celebration.  In  an  ante-room,  just  beneath, 
there  was  anew  statue  of  Hahnemann,  sculptured  by  Woltreck 
of  Dessau.  It  is  a  masterpiece  in  conception  and  execution.  He 
is  represented  sitting  upon  a  rock  and  clothed  in  a  plainly  but 
beautifully  draped  mantle  open  at  the  breast ;  and  the  details 
and  incidents  are  so  conceived  that  they  satisfy  and  compose  the 
eye  without  fixing  it,  and  thus  divert  it  from  the  main  design  to 
the  beautiful  and  expressive  head,  which  combines  benevolence 
and  intellectuality.  The  whole  work  does  honor  to  the  artist 
and  will  transmit  to  posterity  the  life  like  image  of  its  original. 

"The  celebration  began  with  musical  entertainments  These 
are  now  ever3^where  about  as  much  alike  as  one  egg  is  to  another. 

"After  the  musical  part  poems  were  recited  and  speeches  were 
delivered. 

"I  might  again  have  received  some  ennobling  ideas,  as  from 
the  music,  from  these  speeches  and  poems,  but  they  were  only 
prepared  for  the  occasion,  and  yet,  as  such,  they  were  not  with- 
out worth,  and  at  all  events  did  not  fail  to  make  their  impression. 
Sufiice  it  to  be  said  that  the  celebration  was  a  consummate  affair 
and  was  in  every  way  worthy  of  the  distinguished  man  in  whose 
honor  it  was  given.  If  Madame  Hahnemann,  as  a  French 
woman,  is  to  blame  because  the  discoverer  of  the  new  healing 
principle  lives  to-day  in  Paris,  she  has  thereby  made  infinitely 
more  interesting  the  last  days  of  a  brave  battler  for  a  cause  that 
in  many  respects  may  surely  be  called  holy,  and  has  doubled 
and  even  increased  ten- fold  his  renown.  The  brilliant  and 
select   company    that    yesterday  thronged    around  Hahnemann, 


4.02  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

and  which  could  scarcely  have  been  found  anywhere  in  Ger- 
many, is  a  proof  of  this  opinion.  And  then  the  number  of  his 
pupils  and  also  his  very  lucrative  consultations  are  increasing 
in  Paris  every  day.  Seldom  has  an  aged  man  seen  his  last  days 
made  so  beautiful,  and  it  may  well  be  said,  too,  that  not  many 
have  deserved  to  be  thus  esteemed  and  honored  by  mankind." 

Dr.  Croserio,  in  a  letter  to  Dr.  Neidhard  in  1840,*  thus  men- 
tions Hahnemann:  "Invalids  from  the  highest  classes  of 
society  are  constanty  flocking  to  the  cabinet  of  Hahnemann  ;  and 
notwithstanding  the  heat  of  the  season,  which  drives  all  our 
aristocratic  families  into  the  country,  his  saloon  is  always  full, 
and  the  patient  is  frequently  compelled  to  await  his  turn  from 
five  to  six  hours  before  he  can  reach  the  sanctuary  of  ^sculapius. 
His  weekly  receptions — every  Monday — are  frequented  by  phy- 
sicians and  gentlemen  of  the  first  distinction  from  difierent  sec- 
tions of  Europe.  Hungary,  Italj^  Germany,  England  and  the 
Iberian  peninsula,  furnish  visitors  to  this  great  man  ;  some  at- 
tracted by  the  desire  of  acquiring  valuable  instruction  from  his 
long  experience,  others  instigated  by  the  laudable  curiosity  of 
enjoying  the  sight  of  a  man  celebrated  in  their  respective  countries, 
and  all  retire  with  hearts  of  grateful  emotion,  which  the  affection- 
ate gentleness  of  his  entire  deportment  ever  inspires,  and  with 
minds  charged  with  admiration  for  the  vast  erudition  and  pro- 
found knowledge  of  the  venerable  Reformist." 

The  following  is  an  account  of  a  wonderful  cure  made  by  our 
old  doctor.  Its  authenticity  has  been  questioned,  but  it  has 
been  thought  advisable  to  include  it  in  this  history. 

It  is  the  cure  of  the  child  of  the  French  poet,  Legouve,  and 
was  printed  in  Le  Temps  and  was  also  published  in  the  Hovice- 
opaf/iz'c  Wor/d  {or  June,  i88y.  The  editor  says  of  it:  "We  pub- 
lish for  the  entertainment  rather  than  for  the  instruction  of  our 
readers  a  translation  of  an  article  on  Hahnemann.  We  need  not 
inform  our  readers  that,  in  this  article,  the  Hahnemann  de- 
scribed is  almost  purely  mythical,  being  founded  on  the  fact  that 
an  illustrious  person  of  that  name  did  once  reside  in  Paris." 

In  a  letter  addressed  to  the  editor  of  the  Homeopathic  Times 
(Engli-sh)  in  1850,!  the  Rev.  Mr.  Everest  mentions  the  "most 
marvellous  cure  of  the  child  of   M.   Legouve.   the  well-known 

*  Ham.  Exam.,  Vol.  i.,  p.  346. 

"^London  Homoeopathic  Ti^nes,  Vol.  i  ,  p.  565. 


CURE    OF    CHILD    OF    LEGOUVE  403 

French  poet."  Whether  the  present  account  be  true  or  false,  it 
is  probable  that  Hahnemann  did  reallj'  cure  the  child,  else  Mr. 
Everest  would  not  mention  it  as  a  fact.    The  story  is  as  follows: 

"My  daughter,  aged  four  years,  was  dying;  our  medical  man, 

a  physician,  of  the  Hotel  Dieu,  Dr.  R ,  had  told  one  of  our 

friends  in  the  morning  that  she  was  irrevocably  lost.  Her 
mother  and  I  were  watching,  perhaps  for  the  last  time,  beside 
her  cradle;  Schoelcher  and  Goubaux  were  watching  along  with  us, 
and  in  the  room  there  was  also  a  young  man  in  evening  dress, 
whom  we  had  only  known  three  hours  previously,  one  of  M.  In- 
gres' most  distinguished  pupils,  Amaury  Duval. 

"We  wished  to  hav^e  a  souvenir  of  the  dear  little  creature 
whose  fate  we  already  bewailed,  and  Amaury,  at  the  earnest  re- 
quest of  Schoelcher,  who  had  gone  to  fetch  him  in  the  midst  of 
a  ball,  consented  to  come  and  make  this  sad  portrait.  When  the 
dear  and  charming  artist  (he  was  then  twenty-nine  years  old) 
came  overcome  with  emotion  in  the  midst  of  our  distress  we  had 
no  idea,  nor  had  he,  that  a  few  hours  later  he  would  do  us  the 
greatest  service  we  had  ever  experienced,  and  that  we  should  be 
indebted  to  him  for  something  more  valuable  than  the  likeness 
of  our  child,  to  wit,  her  life. 

"  He  placed  at  the  foot  of  the  cradle,  on  a  high  piece  of  furni- 
ture, a  lamp,  whose  light  fell  on  the  child's  face.  Her  eyes  were 
already  closed,  her  body  was  motionless,  her  dishevelled  hair 
hung  about  her  forehead,  and  the  pillow  on  which  her  head  lay 
was  not  whiter  than  her  cheeks  and  her  little  hand  ;  but  infancy 
has  such  a  charm  of  its  own  that  the  near  approach  of  death 
seemed  only  to  lend  an  additional  grace  to  her  face. 

"  Amaury  spent  the  night  in  drawing  her,  and  he  had,  poor 
fellow,  to  wipe  his  eyes  very  frequently  in  order  to  prevent  his 
tears  from  falling  on  his  paper. 

"By  morning  the  portrait  was  finished  ;  under  the  stimulus 
of  emotion  he  had  produced  a  masterpiece.  When  about  to 
leave  us,  in  the  midst  of  our  thanks  and  our  sorrow,  he  all  at 
once  said:  'As  your  medical  man  declares  your  child's  case 
hopeless,  why  do  you  not  make  a  trial  of  the  new  medical  system 
which  is  making  such  a  noise  in  Paris;  why  do  you  not  send  for 
Hahnemann?'  'He  is  right,'  cried  Goubaux,  'Hahnemann 
is  a  near  neighbor  of  mine.  He  lives  in  the  Rue  de  Milan,  op- 
posite to  my  institution.      I   do  not  know  him,  but  that  is  no 


404  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

matter;  I  will  go  and  bring  him  to  you.'  He  went,  he  found 
twenty  patients  in  the  waiting  room.  The  servant  informed  him 
he  must  wait  and  take  his  turn. 

"  '  Wait,'  cried  Goubaux,  '  My  friend's  daughter  is  dying,  the 
doctor  must  come  with  me  at  once.'  'But,  sir' — exclaimed 
the  servant.  'I  know  I  am  the  last.  What  does  that  matter? 
The  last  shall  be  first,  says  the  Kvangelist.'  Then  turning  to  the 
patients,  '  Is  that  not  so,  ladies?  Won't  you  oblige  me  by  letting 
me  go  up  before  you?'  And  without  waiting  for  a  reply,  he 
walked  straight  up  to  the  door  of  the  doctor's  study,  opened  it, 
and  burst  in  in  the  middle  of  a  consultation.  '  Doctor,'  he  said, 
addressing  Hahnemann,  '  I  know  I  am  acting  contrary  to  your 
rules,  but  you  must  leave  all  and  come  with  me.  It  is  for  a 
charming  little  girl,  four  years  old,  who  will  die  if  you  do  not 
come.  You  cannot  let  her  die.  That's  impossible.'  And  the 
irresistible  charm  of  his  manner  prevailed,  as  it  always  does,  and 
one  hour  afterwards  Hahnemann  and  his  wife  came  with  him 
into  our  little  patient's  room. 

"  In  the  midst  of  all  the  troubles  that  distracted  my  poor  head, 
racked  by  pain  and  want  of  sleep,  I  thought  I  saw  one  of  the 
queer  people  of  Hoffman's  fairy  tales  enter  the  room.  Short  in 
stature  but  stout,  and  with  a  firm  step,  he  advanced,  wrapped  in 
a  fur  great  coat  and  supported  by  a  thick  gold-headed  cane.  He 
was  about  eighty  years  of  age;  his  head  of  admirable  shape;  his 
hair  white  and  silky,  brushed  back  and  carefully  curled  round 
his  neck;  his  eyes  were  dark  blue  in  the  centre,  with  a  whitish 
circle  around  the  pupils;  his  mouth  imperious;  the  lower  lip  pro- 
jecting; his  nose  aquiline. 

"When  he  entered  he  walked  straight  up  to  the  cradle,  threw 
a  piercing  glance  at  the  child,  asked  for  particulars  about  her 
disease,  never  taking  his  eyes  off  the  patient.  Then  his  cheeks 
became  flushed,  the  veins  of  his  forehead  swelled,  and  he  ex- 
claimed in  an  angry  voice:  '  Throw  out  of  the  window  all  those 
drugs  and  bottles  I  see  there!  Carry  this  cradle  out  of  this 
room.  Change  the  sheets  and  the  pillows,  and  give  her  as  much 
water  to  drink  as  she  likes.  They  have  put  a  panful  of  hot  coals 
in  her  inside.  We  must  first  extinguish  the  fire  and  then  we 
will  see  what  can  be  done.' 

"We  hinted  that  this  change  of  temperature  and  of  linen 
might  be  dangerous  to  her.      'What  is  killing  her,'  he  replied 


CURE   OF   CHILD   OF   LEGOUVE.  405 

impatiently,  'is  this  atmosphere  and  these  drugs.  Get  her  into 
the  drawing  room,  I  will  come  again  in  the  evening.  And  mind 
you  give  her  water!  water!  water!' 

"He  came  again  that  evening  ;  he  came  again  the  next  day 
and  began  to  give  his  medicines,  and  each  time  he  only  said: 
'Another  day  gained!' 

"On  the  tenth  day  dangerous  symptoms  suddenly  developed 
themselves.  Her  knees  became  cold.  He  came  at  eight  o'clock- 
in  the  evening  and  remained  for  a  quarter  of  an  hour  beside  the 
bed,  apparently  a  prey  to  great  anxiety.  At  last,  after  consulta- 
tion with  his  wife,  who  always  accompanied  him,  he  gave  us  a 
medicine  with  the  remark,  'Give  her  this  and  notice  if  between 
this  and  one  o'clock  the  pulse  gets  stronger.' 

"At  eleven  o'clock,  while  feeling  her  wrist,  I  fancied  I  per- 
ceived a  slight  modification  of  the  pulse.     I  called  to  my  wife;  • 
I  called  to  Goubaux  and  Schoelcher. 

-  "And  now  see  us  all  feeling  the  pulse  one  after  the  other,  look- 
ing at  the  watch,  counting  the  beats,  not  daring  to  affirm  any- 
thing, not  daring  to  rejoice,  until,  at  the  expiration  of  a  few 
minutes,  we  all  four  embraced  each  other,  the  pulse  was  certainly 
stronger.  About  midnight  Chretian  Uhran  came  in.  He  came 
towards  me,  and  in  an  accent  of  profound  conviction,  said, 
'Dear  M.  I/Cgouve,  your  daughter  is  saved.' 

"  'She  is  certainly  a  little  better,'  I  replied  still  desponding, 
'but  between  that  and  being  cured — .'  '  I  tell  you  she  is  saved,' 
and  going  to  the  cradle  he  kissed  the  child  on  her  forehead  and 
took  his  departure.     Bight  days  after  this  the  patient  was  con- 

V3.1cSCdlt  'i^,  'r^  'K  '1^  -T^  'f*  '¥■ 

"  The  powerful  structure  of  Hahnemann's  face,  his  square  jaw; 
the  almost  incessant  palpitation  of  his  nostrils;  the  quivering  of 
the  corners  of  his  mouth,  depressed  by  age;  everything  in  him 
expressed  conviction,  passion,  authority.  His  language,  like  his 
appearance,  was  original.  '  Why,'  lone  daj^  asked  him,  '  why  do 
you  prescribe,  even  for  these  in  health,  the  continual  use  of  water?' 
'  When  one  is  strong  or  active,  of  what  use  are  crutches  of  wine?' 
At  another  time  I  heard  him  make  use  of  this  expression,  which 
sounds  so  strange  if  taken  in  a  literal  sense,  but  which  is  so  pro- 
found if  properly  understood.  '  There  are  no  such  things  as  dis- 
eases; there  are  only  patients.'  His  religious  faith  was  as  gen- 
uine as  his  medical  faith.     Of  this  I  had  two  striking  instances. 


406  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

One  day  in  spring  I  called  on  him  and  said,  '  Oh,  M.  Hahne- 
mann, how  fine  it  is  to-day.'  'It  is  always  fine,'  he  replied  with 
a  calm  and  serious  voice.  lyike  Marcus  Aurelius,  he  lived  in  the 
midst  of  genial  harmony. 

"When  my  daughter  was  cured,  I  showed  him  Amaury 
Duval's  delicious  drawing.  He  gazed  long  and  admiringly  at 
this  portrait,  which  represented  the  resuscitated  girl  as  she  was 
when  he  first  saw  her,  when  she  seemed  so  near  death.  He  then 
asked  me  to  give  him  a  pen,  and  he  wrote  beneath  it: 

"  '  Dieu  I'a  benie  et  I'a  sauvee.' 

"  '  Samuel  Hahnemann.' 

"  His  portrait  would  not  be  complete  unless  I  added  that  of 
his  wife.  She  never  left  him.  In  his  reception  room  she  sat  be- 
side his  desk  at  a  little  table,  where  she  worked  like  him  and  for 
him.  She  was  present  at  all  the  consultations  whatever  might 
be  the  patient's  sex  or  disease.  She  wrote  down  all  the  symp- 
toms of  the  disease,  gave  her  advice  to  Hahnemann  in  German 
and  made  up  his  medicines.  If  he  paid  any  professional  visits, 
which  he  only  did  in  exceptional  cases,  she  always  accompanied 
him  It  is  a  curious  circumstance  that  Hahnemann  was  the  third 
old  man  to  whom  she  had  become  attached. 

"She  commenced  with  painting,  then  changed  to  literature 
and  finished  with  medicine.  At  twenty- five  or  thirty  years  of 
age,  M'lle.  d'Hervilly  (that  was  her  maiden  name),  pretty,  tall, 
elegant,  with  a  fresh  complexion,  her  face  surrounded  with  little 
blonde  curls,  and  her  small  blue  eyes  as  piercing  as  black  ones, 

became  the  companion  of  a  celebrated  pupil  of  David,  M.L ■. 

In  marrying  the  painter  she  married  painting,  and  she  might 
have  signed  more  than  one  of  his  pictures,  as  she  subsequently 
signed  the  prescriptions  of  Hahnemann. 

"  When  M.  L died,  she  turned  to  poetry  in  the  person 

of  a  septuagenarian  poet,  for  the  further  she  went  the  older  she 

liked  them.     This  was  M.  A .     She  now  devoted    herself 

to  making  verses  with  the  same  ardor  with  which  she  had  set 
about  painting  big  historical  pictures,  and  A  having  died  in  his 
turn,  septuagenarians  no  longer  contented  her.  She  married  the 
octogenarian  Hahnemann!  She  now  became  as  revolutionary  in 
medicine  as  she  had  been  classical  in  painting  and  poetry.  Her 
devotion  to  Homoeopathy  went  the  length  of  fanaticism.  One  day 
when  I  was  complaining  in  her  presence  of  the  dishonesty  of  one 


EPIC    POEM    ON    HOMCEOPATHY.  407 

of  our  servants  whom  we  had  been  obliged  to  turn  away,  '  Why 
did  you  not  let  us  know  that  sooner?'  she  replied,  '  we  have  medi- 
cines for  that.'  Let  me  add  that  she  was  a  person  of  rare  intel- 
ligence and  that  she  had  wonderful  skill  as  a  sick  nurse.  No  one 
knew  better  than  she  did  how  to  devise  all  sorts  of  expedients  for 
the  comfort  of  poor  patients.  In  her  was  combined  the  pious 
zeal  of  a  sister  of  charity  and  the  delicate  resources  of  a  woman 
of  the  world.  The  care  she  took  of  Hahnemann  was  admirable. 
"He  died  as  such  a  man  ought  to  die.  Up  to  the  age  of 
eighty-four  he  remained  a  most  eloquent  proof  of  the  excellence 
of  his  doctrine  He  had  no  infirmity,  not  the  slightest  sign  of 
failure  of  intelligence  or  of  memory.  His  regimen  was  simple, 
but  without  any  afiectation  of  rigour.  He  never  drank  either 
pure  water  or  pure  wine.  A  few  spoonfuls  of  champagne  in  a 
jug  of  water  was  his  only  drink,  and  in  place  of  bread  he  ate 
every  day  a  small  sponge  cake.  'My  old  teeth,'  he  said,  'find 
that  easier  to  chew.'  In  summer  he  walked  every  fine  evening 
from  the  Arc  de  Triomphe,  and  stopped  at  Tortoni's  to  eat  an 


CHAPTER  LXXVI. 

EPIC  POEM  ON  HOMCEOPATHY — DR.  HUI.I,'S  VISIT  TO  HAHNEMANN 
— LETTER  TO  DR.  SCHREETER — EIGHTY- SIXTH  BIRTHDAY. 

In  1840,  one  "Guancialis"  wrote  an  epic  poem  in  praise  of 
Hahnemann. 

It  was  published  in  Naples,  and  contained  eight  books  of 
Latin  hexameters.  It  gives  a  history  of  the  discovery  of  the 
law  of  similia  and  of  its  introduction  into  the  different  lands  of 
the  earth.  A  review  may  be  found  in  the  British  Journal  of 
Homoeopathy,  Vol.  4.  p.  424. 

Dr.  A.  G.  Hull  visited  Hahnemann  in  Paris,  in  1840,  and 
thus  writes  of  it:  "Furnished  with  letters  from  Dr.  Hering, 
of  Philadelphia,  and  Dr.  Quin,  of  London,  I  found  a  welcome 
access  to  our  venerable  master.  At  this  period  Hahnemann  oc- 
cupied a  spacious  mansion  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Luxembourg 
Gardens.     Ushered  by  an  attendant  into  the  grand  saloon  at  a 


408  LIFE    OP    HAHNEMANN. 

moment  when  he  was  engaged  with  a  patient  in  his  adjoining 
study,  I  had  an  opportunity  of  individualizing  the  appointments 
of  this  noble  apartment.  Its  walls  were  hung  with  varied  and 
choice  paintings  in  oil,  many  of  them  the  productions  oi  his  ac- 
complished wife.  Vases,  busts  and  medals — donatives  from 
those  whose  gratitude  his  cures  have  evoked — were  disposed  in 
tasteful  arrangement,  and  his  centre  table  was  laden  with  the 
productions  of  German,  French  and  other  tongues,  presentation 
copies.  Introduced  into  the  library  or  study,  I  had  for  the  first 
time  the  inexpressible  gratification  of  beholding  the  face  and 
grasping  the  hand  of  the  great  Reformist  of  our  century.  I  felt 
myself  in  the  presence  of  a  mighty  intellect,  once  compelled  to 
struggle  with  keen  adversity,  to  contend  with  the  persecution 
and  cupidity  of  his  rivals,  and  in  banishment  to  depend  upon 
the  protective  shelter  of  a  noble  stranger,  now  independently 
situated  in  the  heart  of  Europe,  and  proudly  eminent  in  the  ad- 
miration of.  literati,  philosophers,  noblemen  and  crowned  heads. 
Hahnemann,  who  is  now  approaching  his  90th  year,  recalls  in 
his  venerable  appearance  the  ideal  of  a  Seneca  or  Plato,  an 
Aristotle  or  Socrates.  Attached  to  the  usages  of  his  study,  he 
was,  as  is  his  general  habit,  attired  in  a  morning  gown,  his 
silvered  locks  flowing  on  either  side  of  his  head  from  beneath  a 
small  and  close  German  cap,  after  the  fashion  of  a  German 
University  student.  His  capacious  head  of  the  finest  Saxon 
mould,  presented  a  full  broad  face,  expressive  of  a  noble  benev- 
olence and  high  intelligence.  I  had  anticipated  many  exhibi- 
tions of  the  progress  of  age  in  the  physical  condition  of 
Hahnemann.  But  his  firmness  of  figure,  activity  of  movement 
and  unimpaired  sight  and  hearing  are  characteristic  of  the 
perfect  health  he  enjoys,  and  form  no  slight  or  inconclusive 
commentary  upon  the  excellence  of  the  Homoeopathic  regimen 
he  has  so  scrupulously  and  so  long  observed.  His  mental 
faculties  seem  also  in  the  judgment  of  all  who  have  known  him 
long  to  retain  the  vigor  of  former  days ;  and  if  I  may  be  allowed 
to  judge  by  the  masterly  criticisms  and  powerful  arguments  I 
have  heard  fall  from  his  lips,  the  apostle  of  modern  Germany 
has  not  succumbed  to  the  ordinary  ravages  of  time,  but  in  man- 
hood and  strength  of  intellect  is  in  his  green  old  age,  'Lord  of 
the  lion  heart  and  eagle  eye.'*  I  shall  ever  bear  in  mind  the 
*  Horn.  Exam.,  Vol.  II,  p.  12. 


DR.    HULL  S    VISITS    HAHNEMANN.  409 

cordial  greeting  and  warmth  of  welcome  with  which  the  great 
master  received  his  American  disciple.  Immediately  at  ease,  I 
engaged  in  a  conversation,  the  recollection  of  which  will  con- 
tinue to  cheer  me  in  the  struggle  that  is  now  pending  on  this 
side  of  the  Atlantic.  Hahnemann  having  relinquished  visiting 
the  sick  for  manj^  years,  his  practice  is  to  a  great  extent  con- 
sulting, and  is  exclusively  confined  to  his  office  ;  so  that  the 
sickness  which  commands  his  attentions  and  prescriptions,  is  of 
a  chronic  character.  This  experience  is  not  to  be  estimated  as 
inconsiderable  as  the  revenue  of  Hahnemann  from  this  form  of 
practice  exceeds  200,000  francs  per  annum.  Hahnemann  made 
earnest  inquiries  as  to  the  condition  and  prospects  of  Homoeo- 
pathy in  America. 

"From  among  the  physicians  of  America  he  especially  desig- 
nated Dr.  Hering,  of  Philadelphia,  his  personal  and  long  tried 
friend  and  former  companion,  and  Dr.  Gray,  of  New  York,  who 
some  time  before  had  communicated  to  him  the  pleasing  intelli- 
gence of  one  of  the  highest  concessions  and  compliments  that 
could  be  paid  to  his  worth  by  his  Allopathic  opponents  in  the 
United  States,  that  of  honorary  membership  in  the  Medical 
Society  of  New  York."  (The  same  society  afterwards  decided 
to  reclaim  this  empty  honor  and  so  did. — B — d). 

"He  spoke  of  Dr.  Hering  in  the  most  aflfectionate  terms,  and 
expatiated  freely  upon  his  merits,  attainments  and  perseverence 
in  the  humane  cause  he  has  espoused.  He  considers  Dr.  Hering 
one  of  his  most  efficient  disciples ;  to  which  decision  all  will 
respond  who  are  acquainted  with  the  devotion  of  this  early 
pioneer,  who  fearlessly  faced  the  yellow  fever  and  exposed  his 
system  by  patient  experiments  to  the  deadly  influence  of  the 
venomous  reptiles  of  Surinam.  I  bore  with  me  from  the  hands 
of  Madame  Hahnemann  a  superb  medallion  of  her  husband, 
modelled  by  the  celebrated  sculptor  David,  as  a  souvenir  to  this 
estimable  man  and  undeviating  Homoeopathist.  Hahnemann 
felt  quite  interested  in  the  course  of  education  adopted  by 
American  Homceopathists,  and  in  his  rejoinders  gives  a  direct 
denial  to  the  calumnious  circulation  charged  upon  him  that 
medical  instruction  was  not  vitally  essential  to  successful  prac- 
tice. In  answer  to  inquiry  on  this  point,  I  stated  that  our  regu- 
larly recognized  Homoeopaths  were  qualified  by  their  diplomas 
from  the  legal  institutions  of  our  country  in  the  departments 


4IO  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

of  anatomy,  physiology,  surgery,  midwifery,  materia  medica, 
chemistry,  botany  and  Allopathic  medicine;  i.  e  ,  were  "regular 
physicians"  before  they  commenced  the  study  of  Homoeopathy, 
which  accomplished,  rendered  them  alone  competent  to  judge  be- 
tween the  merits  of  the  two  systems — to  avoid  the  dangers  of  Allo- 
pathy and  to  appreciate  the  demonstrable  advantages  of  Homoe- 
opathy. 

"Hahnemann  'rejoiced  that  his  American  disciples  pursued  the 
only  true  and  creditable  course  for  maintaining  the  exalted 
dignity  and  sacred  duty  that  belongs  to  the  physician . '  He  further 
inquired  if  his  American  adherents  had  acquired  their  knowledge 
of  his  system  in  the  German  language.  I  replied  that  I  had 
made  it  my  duty  to  do  so,  and  hoped  that  no  Homoeopathist 
among  my  countrymen  would  with  the  present  limited  works  in 
the  English  language  consider  himself  a  competent  practitioner 
until  he  had  studied  well  the  fountain  from  whence  the  system 
flowed. 

"The  memory  of  that  moment  is  before  me  and  I  shall  not 
soon  forget  the  suddenly  illuminated  countenance  of  that  good  old 
man.  His  eyes  flashed,  his  form  expanded,  and  with  the 
vehemence  of  one  intensel}'-  interested  in  the  cause  of  his  heart 
and  life  he  spoke  deeply  eloquent. 

"  'The  toil  of  my  early  Homoeopathic  life  and  the  labors  of  my 
German  associates  are  principally  confined  to  the  language  that 
gave  them  birth.  To  accumulate  these  treasures  my  disciples 
united  with  me  in  the  midst  of  contempt  and  persecutions,  in 
self-denials  and  life-periling  experiments.  Is  it  possible,  then, 
that  any  man  who  professes  to  be  a  Homoeopathist  and  to  love 
his  species  will  not  take  the  comparatively  trifling  trouble  of 
acquiring  this  important  preliminary  to  a  correct  acquisition  of 
this  great  boon  to  the  sick?  No;  it  cannot  be!  Their  solemn  ob- 
ligations to  diseased  and  dying  humanity,  to  confer  the  benefits 
of  medicine  in  the  very  best  possible  manner,  should  appeal  to 
their  consciences  as  they  expect  to  be  judged  hereafter.'  " 

"The  time  for  farewell  having  arrived,  I  acquainted  the 
venerable  sage  and  his  most  excellent  wife  of  ray  intention  and 
offered  my  grateful  acknowledgments  for  their  civilities.  The 
old  man,  seemingly  as  a  patriarch  of  old,  arose,  and  embracing 
me  most  aff"ectionately  with  both  hands,  gave  me  a  parting  bene- 
diction, which  like  'a  pillar  of  cloud  by  day  and  pillar  of  fire  by 


LETTER  TO  DR.   SHCREETER.  4II 

night  shall  guide  my  feet '  in  the  trackless  field  of  contention 
the  enemies  of  Homoeopathy  are  creating. 

' '  'Farewell,  my  son !  Persevere  as  you  have  commenced,  and  you 
will  rejoice  in  the  gratitude  of  your  beneficiaries.  Go  to  your 
ntitive  land,  where  the  spirit  of  your  Constitution  spurns  the 
tyranny  of  opinion,  and  propagate  the  truths  I  have  so  long  and 
so  successfully  inculcated.  Your  efforts,  guided  by  these  truths, 
will  acquire  for  you  a  brilliant  triumph.  God  bless  you,  my 
son!  Farewell!'  "* 

In  a  letter  to  Dr.  Schreeter  Hahnemann  thus  expresses  him- 
self regarding  his  life  in  Paris, f 

"Paris,  13th  August,  1840. 
' '  Esteemed  Friend  and  Colleague: 

"  I  know  not  when,  in  the  course  of  my  long  life,  I  have  been 
better  or  happier  than  in  Paris,  in  the  loved  society  of  my  dear 
Melanie,  who  cares  for  naught  in  the  world  more  than  for  me.  I 
also  begin  gradually  to  find  that  my  professional  labors  are  creating 
in  the  great  Metropolis  more  than  mere  attention,  a  high  respect 
for  our  divine  healing  art.  All  patients  who  are  not  bedridden, 
whatever  their  rank,  visit  me  every  day  (Sundays  excepted)  in 
my  study.  To  those  only  who  are  confined  to  bed  I  drive  from 
eight  to  ten  in  the  evening.  Two  or  three  times  a  week  I  go 
with  my  wife  to  a  theatre  or  concert." 

The  following  letter  was  written  to  some  one  in  America  in 
1841 — Dudgeon  says  probably  to  one  of  Hering's  German  col- 
laborators in  the  Allentown  Academy  :| 

* '  Dear  Frie^id : 

"How  are  you  and  your  two  dear  boys?  I  hope  I  may- 
receive  a  very  good  account  of  you.  I  would  also  like  to  know 
if  you  have  become  familiar  with  our  difiicult,  no  doubt,  but 
very  efficacious  Homoeopathic  practice  ? 

"  I  and  my  dear  wife,  both  together,  cure  a  very  great  number 
of  patients.  She  alone,  at  a  later  period  of  the  day,  cures  very 
many  poor  patients,  often  to  my  astonishment.  We  receive 
patients  of  all  ranks,  even  the  highest,  in  our  consulting  room, 

*  Horn.  Examiner,  Vol.  i.,  p.  241.     (July,  1840). 

"^ Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  vi.,  p.  416.  Stapf  s  Arckiv,  Vol.  xxiii.,  pt.  3, 
p.  107. 

XHom.  World,  Vol.  xxvi.,  p.  119. 


412  LIFE    OF   HAHNEMANN. 

and  I  pay  visits  along  with  her,  in  my  carriage,  only  to  patients 
who  are  obliged  to  keep  their  beds,  generally  in  the  evening  till 
midnight.  I  have  consultations  at  my  house  only  from  ten  in 
the  morning  until  four  in  the  afternoon.  We  are  regularly 
besieged  by  patients,  even  in  summer,  when  so  many  families 
live  in  the  country. 

"There  has  been  a  great  accession  of  nominal  Homoeopaths 
since  I  came  here  (six  years  ago),  but  there  are  very  few  good, 
true,  pure  ones.  There  may  be  some  good  ones  in  the  country 
towns. 

"  It  I  have  been  rightly  informed,  your  Academy  in  Allentown 
grants  diplomas  to  good  Homoeopaths.  If  that  is  so,  you  would 
confer  a  favor  on  me  if  you  would  send  one  to  my  dear  wife, 
Marie  Melanie  Hahnemann,  nee  d'Hervilly,  for  she  is  better 
acquainted  with  Homoeopathy,  theoretically  and  practically, 
than  any  of  my  followers,  and  lives,  I  may  say,  for  our  art. 

"  The  two  little  cameos  which  the  dear  clergyman,  Mr.  Bayer^ 
is  taking  to  you  will  give  you  a  good  idea  of  my  head;  the 
copper-plate  engraving  is,  on  the  whole,  also  very  like,  only  the 
artist  has  taken  me  in  an  unfortunate  moment,  when  I  was 
probably  vexed  by  the  bad  behavior  of  the  bastard  -Homoeopaths 
in  Germany;  there  is  no  trace  in  it  of  the  kind-heartedness 
which  is  usually  seen  on  my  countenance. 

"  God  keep  you  in  good  health  and  prosperity. 
"  Your  quite  devoted, 

"Samuel  Hahnemann. 
' '  Paris,  March  28,  184.1. 

"  Write  to  me  by  post  (that  is  the  best  way)  to  Paris,  Rue  de 
Milan — Clichy,  No.  i." 

In  the  Allgemeijie  Zeihcrig  may  be  found  a  short  account  of  the 
eighty-sixth  birthday  celebration.     It  is  as  follows:* 

"Another  acknowledgment  of  his  distinguished  services  was 
recently  given  in  Paris  to  Dr.  Samuel  Hahnemann  on  his 
eighty- sixth  birthday.  The  city  council  of  his  native  city, 
Meissen,  unanimously  conferred  upon  him  the  honor  of  citizen- 
ship, the  mayor  of  the  city  engrossing  the  diploma  which  was 
presented  to  him  at  the  jubilee  on  the  loth  of  April  by  his 
excellency,  the  Saxon  ambassador  at  Paris.  How  much  this 
mark  of  attention  rejoiced  and  honored  the  aged  man  is  plainly 
to  be  inferred  from  his  official  reply  to  the  city  council  of  Meissen. 
*Allg.  horn.  Zeitung,  Vol.  xx.,  p.  112.     (July  5,  1841). 


SIXTY-SECOND    ANNIVERSARY.  413 

*'  Ma}^  the  great  renovator  of  medicine  receive  many  more  such 
tokens  of  honor  in  his  old  age.  They  would  afford  him  the  best 
assurance  of  his  rational  and  unceasing  strife  for  the  truth." 

Dr.  Croserio,  in  a  letter  addressed  to  Dr.  Neidhard,  of  Phila- 
delphia, and  dated  Paris,  September  25,  1841,  mentions  this  cir- 
cumstance as  follows:*  ' '  The  burgomasters  of  the  city  of  Meissen 
have  bestowed  the  title  of  honorary  citizenship  on  Hahnemann, 
and  have  had  the  delicacy  to  present  the  diploma  to  him  through 
the  minister  pf  Saxony,  on  the  loth  of  April,  his  birthday. 
This  spontaneous  act  of  the  principal  association  of  a  city  in 
favor  of  the  founder  of  doctrines  which  they  consider  beneficial 
to  humanity,  living  twelve  hundred  miles  apart  from  them,  and 
all  these  acts  of  other  bodies,  are  the  best  proofs  of  the  considera- 
tion and  esteem  in  which  Homoeopathy  is  held  throughout  the 
country." 

The  loth  of  August,  1841,  was  also  celebrated  as  usual. 
Croserio  saysrf  "  You  will  doubtless  be  glad  to  learn  that  our 
venerable  master  enjoys  excellent  health,  notwithstanding  his 
great  age.  His  body  and  mind  preserve  all  the  activity  and 
energy  of  middle  age.  He  is  going  to  publish  the  sixth  edition 
of  his  'Organon,'  revised,  in  French,  and  written  entirely  by 
his  own  hand,  in  the  intervals  taken  from  his  occupations  with 
the  immense  circle  of  patients  by  whom  he  is  continually  sur- 
rounded. The  I oth  of  August  we  celebrated  at  his  own  house 
the  sixty-second  anniversary  of  his  doctorate.  The  guests  were 
numerous  and  animated  with  pleasure  at  seeing  this  man  thus 
recompensed  in  his  old  age  for  his  immense  labors  in  the  cause 
of  humanity.  The  illustrious  host  also  visibly  rejoiced  in  see- 
ing himself  surrounded  by  his  attached  friends,  his  numerous 
patients  and  disciples;  for  his  heart  is  open  like  a  child's  to 
every  mark  of  friendship  and  affection.  Drs.  Calandra,  of 
Palermo,  and  Sommers,  of  Berlin,  read,  each  of  them,  a  copy  of 
verses  in  their  mother  tongue  on  a  subject  of  great  interest  to 
the  company;  for  these  reunions  have  a  peculiar  character  of 
cosmopolitanism,  which  is  met  with  nowhere  else.  The  lan- 
guage of  the  country  is  the  one  least  spoken,  and  I  had  the 
pleasure  of  conversing  in  Spanish,  Italian,  English  and  German. 

*  Horn,  Exam.,  Vol.  iii.,  p  61. 

t  Letter  to  Dr.  Neidhard,  Horn.  Exam.,  Vol.  iii.,  p.  59. 


414  LIFE   OF   HAHNEMANN. 

This  is  a  centre  where  all  nations  unite  in  brotherhood,  in  senti- 
ments of  veneration  for  the  illustrious  founder  of  Homoeopathy, 
and  in  reciprocal  testimonies  to  the  superiority  of  this  doctrine 
over  all  others  which  have  preceded  it,  being  for  the  most  part 
living  proofs  of  that  power  to  which  they  owe  their  health,  and 
many  of  them  their  lives." 

What  more  potent  answer  to  the  great  little  men  of  the  present 
day,  who  just  about  so  often  inform  us  what  an  old  ignoramus 
Hahnemann  was,  than  to  invite  them  to  picture  to  themselves 
this  scene  of  his  declining  years.  The  old  man,  with  his 
fine  intellectual  face,  his  white  hair  curling  on  either  side  of  his 
lofty  brow,  his  manner  filled  with  the  enthusiasm  and  unrest  of 
genius,  surrounded  by  learned  men  of  half  a  dozen  countries, 
able  to  speak  to  each  in  his  mother  tongue.  Imagine  this 
brilliant  assembly,  met  to  do  honor  to  the  most  brilliant  of  them 
all.  Here  a  sentence  in  English,  there  a  soft  Italian  phrase, 
then  some  witty  sentence  in  the  diction  of  his  fatherland,  anon  a 
Spanish  question,  again  a  witty  French  bon  mot — Hahnemann 
answering  each  in  its  own  tongue.  The  while  Madame  Hahne- 
mann, the  hostess,  charming  in  her  easy  grace,  giving  to  all  a 
worthy  welcome,  and  honoring  the  dear  old  man,  her  medical 
Master  and  her  beloved  husband.  And  this  in  the  brightest  city 
in  the  world. 

It  is  quite  time  that  the  medical  and  other  critics  and  detrac- 
tors of  Hahnemann  fit  glasses  of  truth  to  their  myopic  and  astig- 
matic eyes,  and  let  Hahnemann  alone. 

As  has  been  seen  all  of  the  birthdays  of  Hahnemann  were 
utilized  to  honor  him.     His  life  at  Paris  was  one  long  fete. 


CHAPTER  LXXVII. 

HAHNEMANN'S    MODESTY    CONCERNING    AN     HONORARY    TABLET 
— LAST   ILLNESS   AND   DEATH. 

In  1841  two  of  Hahnemann's  admirers,  Mr.  William  Leaf,  of 
London,  and  Mr.  Franz  Arles-Dufour,  of  Lyons,  France,  wished 
to  place  an  inscription  in  the  house  at  Meissen  in  which  Hahne- 
mann was  born.     The  following  is  a  copy  of  the  Latin  inscrip- 


HONORARY   TABLET.  415 

tioii  that  was  prepared  by  these  gentlemen  together  with  a  letter 
from  Hahnemann  written  in  French  concerning  it:* 

"Chr.  Fr.  Samueli  Hahnemann,  co7iditori^  Medicinae  vera  cele- 
berrimo  immortali  artis  medendi  Homoeopathicae  auctori  ij usque 
primo  professori,  segrorum  praesidio  firmissimo  summo  saxonum 
decori.  Hoc  patria  domo  monumentum  Guilielmus  Leaf,  Lon- 
dinensis,  grati  piique  cultores  posuerunt  anno  MDCCCXIyll." 

^Antimdo  Emendatori. 

In  the  original  as  sent  to  Hahnemann  the  word  eme?idatori  was 
used  instead  of  conditori.  As  will  be  seen  by  the  letter  this  was 
not  pleasing  to  Hahnemann.  The  original  of  the  follow- 
ing letter  is  written  in  French,  and  as  usual  with  Hahnemann's 
writing  is  so  fine  and  exact  as  to  resemble  copper  plate: 

"  Paris,  Dec.  ii,  1841. 
'  'Dear  Doctor  and  Friend: 

"I  have  received  all  your  amiable  letters,  for  which  I  thank 
you  most  heartily,  also  for  your  good  friendship  which  I  here- 
with reciprocate.  Dr.  Schubert,  of  Leipsic,  has  written  me  that 
Mr.  L,eaf  and  Mr.  Aries- Dufour  intend  to  place  an  inscription  on 
the  house  in  which  I  was  born  at  Meissen.  He  sends  me  a  copy  of 
it  so  that  I  may  correct  anything  that  I  should  judge  improper. 

"While  I  appreciate  the  smallness  of  my  personal  value  I 
must  claim  in  the  name  of  Homoeopathy  that  the  entirely  false 
expression  of  eme7idatori  be  changed  into  that  of  conditori.  One 
must  break  every  allia?ice  with  tmtruth.  Mr.  Schubert  writes  me 
to  address  this  correction  to  you  in  order  to  lay  it  properly  before 
Mr.  Leaf,  which  I  herewith  do;  embracing  you, 

"I  wish  you  good  health  and  success, 

"Samuel  Hahnemann." 

Dr.  Black,  of  England,  in  an  address  before  the  British 
Homoeopathic  Congress,  held  in  1872,  said:t  "  I  knew  Hahne- 
mann a  year  before  his  death,  but  age  had  told  on  his  frame  and 
his  intellect;  it  left  untouched  his  enthusiasm  and  his  desire  to 
work.  When  he  bade  me  good-bye,  embracing  me,  he  said: 
'Work,  work,  and  the  good  God  will  bless  thee.'  " 

*The  compiler  is  indebted  to  the  courtesy  of  Dr.  J.  H.  McClelland,  of 
Pittsburgh,  Pa.,  for  the  above  inscription  and  letter.  Dr.  McClelland  owns 
the  original  letter  by  Hahnemann. 

■\ Med.  Investigator,  Vol.  ix.,  p.  558. 


4l6  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

It  may  be  mentioned  here  that  Hahnemann  was,  during  his 
life  in  Paris,  visited  by  several  prominent  Allopathic  physicians. 

Dr.  Valentine  Mott,  of  New  York,  the  celebrated  surgeon, 
visited  him,  and  after  his  return  thus  spoke:  "Hahnemann  is 
one  of  the  most  accomplished  and  scientific  physicians  of  the 
present  age."* 

But  the  days  of  celebrations,  fetes  and  interviews  v»^ith  great 
men,  with  which  his  life  in  Paris  had  been  filled,  were  now  about 
to  cease.  He,  who  ten  years  before  in  Germany  had  spoken  of 
himself  as  on  the  verge  of  the  grave,  was  now  a  very  aged  man. 

We  have  nearly  reached  the  end  of  the  story  of  this  magnifi- 
cent life.  From  privation,  trial,  calumny;  from  the  peace  of 
Coethen;  from  the  distinguished  honors  of  Paris;  let  us  turn  to  a 
death  calm  and  dignified,  worthy  in  every  way  of  the  life. 

For  the  previous  ten  years  Hahnemann  had  been  every  spring 
a  sufferer  from  that  disease  of  the  very  old,  bronchial  catarrh. 
In  April,  184-3,  ^^  was  again  taken  with  this  disease  and  became 
at  once  seriously  ill.  He  as  usual  prescribed  for  himself,  and 
when  he  became  too  weak  to  do  this  recommended  the  remedies 
that  his  wife  and  Dr.  Chatran  should  use  Patiently  he  suffered 
the  severe  paroxysms  of  difficult  breathing  peculiar  to  his  dis- 
ease, evincing  to  the  last  that  benign  spirit  of  devoutness  to  God 
that  had  characterized  his  whole  life.  The  end  came  early  in 
the  morning  of  Sunday,  July  2,  1843. 

Jahr,  writing  to  the  Allgemeine  Zeihing,^  two  days  later,  says:| 

"HAHNEMANN    IS    DEAD  !  " 

"  About  the  15th  of  April  he  was  taken  ill  with  the  malady 
that  usually  attacked  him  in  the  spring,  a  bronchial  catarrh,  and 


*  "  Trans.  N.  Y.  State  Horn.  Med.  Soc,"  Vol.  i.,  p.  119  (1863). 

■\  Allg.  horn.  Zeitung,  Vol.  xxiv.,  p.  257  (July  10,  1843).  Ameke,  p.  166. 
Leben  und  Wirke7i,  p.  80. 

J  Rather  a  singular  error  occurred  in  the  letter  written  by  Jahr  to  the 
editor  of  the  Allegenieine  honwopathische  Zeihing  announcing  Hahne- 
mann's death.  Instead  of  writing  July  he  wrote  June  at  the  beginning  of 
the  letter.  In  Dr.  Hering's  copy  of  the  Zeitung  the  letter  is  dated /««/  ^, 
but  Dr.  Hering  in  his  characteristic  blue  pencil  mark  has  crossed  this 
and  written  Juli.  From  the  Zeitung  this  error  was  copied  into  the  Al- 
brecht  books,  Ameke  gives  it  as  June  4,  Fischer  in  his  translation  from 
Albrecht  gives  July  4,  and  this  date  is  correct.  Hahnemann  certainly  died 
on  July  2d,  at  five  in  the  morning,  and  Jahr  sent  the  first  news  to  Ger- 
many, writing  two  days  later,  on  July  4th. 


LAST   ILLNESS   AND   DEATH,  417 

it  took  such  hold  of  him  that  his  wife  admitted  no  one.  The 
report  was  spread  several  times  that  he  was  dead;  this,  however, 
was  contradicted.  I  had  been  intending  to  call  myself  when  I 
received  a  note  from  Madame  Hahnemann  begging  me  to  come 
that  same  day.  I  went  at  once  and  was  admitted  to  Hahne- 
mann's bedroom.  Here,  think  of  the  sight,  instead  of  seeing 
Hahnemann,  the  dear,  friendly  old  man,  smile  his  greeting,  I 
found  his  wife  stretched,  in  tears,  on  the  bed  and  him  lying  cold 
and  stiff  by  her  side,  having  passed  five  hours  before  into  that 
life  where  there  is  no  strife,  no  sickness  and  no  death.  Yes,  dear 
friends,  our  venerable  Father  Hahnemann  has  finished  his  course; 
a  chest  affection  has,  after  a  six  weeks'  illness,  liberated  his 
spirit  from  its  weary  frame. 

"  His  mental  powers  remained  unimpaired  up  to  the  last 
moment,  and  although  his  voice  became  more  and  more  unintelli- 
gible yet  his  broken  words  testified  to  the  continued  clearness  of 
his  mind  and  to  the  calm  with  which  he  anticipated  his  approach- 
ing end.  At  the  very  commencement  of  his  illness  he  told  those 
about  him  that  this  would  be  his  last,  as  his  frame  was  worn  out. 
At  first  he  treated  himself,  and  till  a  short  time  before  his  death 
he  expressed  his  opinions  relative  to  the  remedies  recommended 
by  his  wife  and  a  certain  Dr.  Chatran.  He  only  really  suffered 
just  at  the  end  from  increasing  oppression  on  the  chest.  When 
after  one  such  attack  his  wife  said:  '  Providence  surely  owes 
you  exemption  from  all  suffering,  as  you  have  relieved  so  many 
others  and  have  suffered  so  many  hardships  in  your  arduous  life;' 
he  answered:  'Why  should  I  expect  exemption  from  suffering? 
Everyone  in  this  world  works  according  to  the  gifts  and  powers 
which  he  has  received  from  Providence,  and  more  or  less  are 
words  used  only  before  the  judgment  seat  of  man,  not  before 
that  of  Providence.  Providence  owes  me  nothing.  I  owe  it 
much.     Yes,  everything.' 

' '  Profound  grief  for  this  great  loss  is  felt  here  by  all  his  follow- 
ers. All  shed  tears  of  gratitude  and  affection  for  him.  But  the 
loss  of  those  who  have  had  the  happiness  of  enjoying  the  friend- 
ship and  affection  of  this  great  man  can  only  be  estimated  by 
those  who  have  known  him  in  his  domestic  circle,  and  especially 
during  his  last  years.  He,  himself,  when  not  persecuted  by 
others,  was  not  only  a  good,  but  a  simple-hearted  and  benevolent 
man,  who  was  never  happier  than  when  among  friends  to  whom 


41 8  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

he  could  unreserved!}'  open  his  heart.  Well,  he  has  nobly  fought 
through  and  gloriouslj'  completed  his  difficult  and  often  painful 
course.    Sit  ei  terra  levis  !" 

Dr.  Hull  announced  his  death  in  the  Homoeopathic  Examiner 
for  September,  1843,*  as  follows:  "This  impressive  event  took 
place  on  the  second  of  July,  after  a  protracted  bronchial  catarrh. 
The  disease  began  on  the  twelfth  of  April,  two  days  after  he  had 
celebrated  his  eighty  seventh  birthday  in  excellent  health  and 
spirits.  Hahnemann  had  for  twenty  years  suffered  from  attacks 
of  this  disease  in  the  spring  of  the  year.  He  had  ever,  as  in  this 
instance,  prescribed  for  himself.  This  last  attack  set  in  with  a 
serious  diarrhoea,  which  exhausted  him  very  much.  In  the 
early  stages  of  the  sickness  he  announced  to  his  friends  the 
opinion  that  he  could  not  survive  it.  'The  earthly  frame  is 
Vi^orn  out'  was  his  expression.  He  seems  to  have  suffered  but 
slightly  till  a  short  time  (probably  a  few  days  only)  before  his 
decease,  when  a  dyspnoea  came  on  in  paroxysms  increasing  in 
severity  until  the  final  one,  which  lasted  thirteen  hours  and  ter- 
minated in  suffocation."     Croserio  writing  to  Dr.  Hull,  says: 

"How  much  equanimity,  patience  and  imperturbable  goodness 
he  exhibited!  Though  he  had  a  distinct  presentiment  of  his  ap- 
proaching end,  yet  he  never  permitted  an  expression  to  escape 
him  which  could  alarm  his  wife;  he  calmly  made  his  final  ar- 
rangements, and  embraced  each  of  his  friends  with  tenderness, 
such  as  belonged  to  a  final  adieu,  but  with  steady  equanimity. 
Hahnemann  expired  at  5  A.  m.  Two  hours  afterwards  I  visited 
his  sacred  remains.  The  face  expressed  an  ineffable  calm. 
Death  could  not  detract  the  least  from  the  angelic  goodness  which 
belonged  to  the  expression  of  his  features." 

It  is  said  that  the  widow  of  Hahnemann  applied  for  and  re- 
ceived permission  to  retain  his  body  for  twenty  days  beyond  the 
usual  time  of  interment.     The  body  was  embalmed  by  Ganal.f 

It  does  not  seem  that  many  people  saw  Hahnemann  during  his 
last  illness.  Jahr  expressed  himself  to  that  effect,  implying  that 
his  best  friends  were  excluded  from  the  sick  chamber. 

Dr.  Suss- Hahnemann,  in  a  letter  to  the  editor  of  the  British 
Journal  of  Homoeopathy,  May  30.  1865,  says:  ]{;     "Unfortunately 


*  Horn.  Exam.,  Vol.  iii  ,  p.  257  (Sept.,  1843), 

■\ Horn.  Exam.,  Vol.  iii.,  p.  25S. 

X  Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  xxiii.,  p.  423. 


LAST   ILLNESS   AND   DEATH.  419 

I  was  only  present  at  the  very  last  dying  moments  of  my  grand- 
father, not  even  on  the  eve  of  his  death,  although  my  late 
mother  and  I  had  arrived  in  Paris  already  a  whole  week  previous 
to  this  sad  event  taking  place.  In  spite  of  our  most  earnest  en- 
treaties, in  spite  of  Hahnemann's  own  wish  to  see  once  more  his 
favorite  daughter,  Madame  Hahnemann  resolutely  and  sternly 
refused  us  an  interview  with  our  dying  parent,  when  he  would 
have  been  still  able  to  speak  to  us  and  to  bless  us." 

Hahnemann's  death  was  a  great  grief  to  the  many  friends  of 
the  new  system  of  medicine.  It  was  generally  noticed  in  the 
journals  of  both  medical  schools. 

The  following  account  appeared  in  the  British  Journal  of 
Homceopathy  :^ 

"death    of    HAHNEMANN." 

"It  is  our  painful  duty  to  announce  the  death  of  our  vener- 
able Master,  an  event  quite  unexpected  by  those  who  on  his  last 
birthday,  three  months  before,  were  witnesses  of  the  mental  and 
bodily  vigor  of  which  he  then  gave  proof. 

"Samuel  Hahnemann  died  in  his  eighty-ninth  year  at  his 
house  in  the  Rue  de  Milan,  Paris,  at  five  o'clock  on  the  morning 
of  Sunday,  2d  July,  after  an  illness  of  six  weeks. 

"His  remains  are  for  the  present  laid  in  Madame  Hahne- 
mann's family  vault  at  Montmartre,  but  will  probably,  ere  long, 
be  transferred  to  Germany. 

"  His  illness  commenced  with  a  bilious  diarrhoea,  succeeded 
by  an  intermittent  fever,  which  greatly  reduced  his  strength. 
It  first  assumed  a  tertian,  then  a  quotidian  type;  he  rallied  sur- 
prisingly, however,  and  was  deemed  convalescent,  when  bron- 
chitis senilis  supervened,  under  which  he  sunk  in  three  days. 
He  retained  his  faculties  entire  to  the  last,  and  shortly  before  he 
expired  dictated  a  short  and  simple  epitaph. f 

"He  bade  adieu  to  his  wife  and  friends,  commended  himself 
to  God,  and  died. 

"Shortly  before  his  death,  while  suffering  from  difficulty  of 
breathing,  his  wife  said  to  him:  '  Providence  owes  you  a  mitiga- 
tion of  your  sufferings,  since,  in  your  life,  you  have  alleviated 
the  sufferings  of  so  many,  and  yourself  endured  so  much.'  'Me,' 
replied  the  dying  sage,  'why  then  me?     Each  man  here  below 

*  Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  i.,  p.  415  (Oct.,  1843. 
tNon  inutilis  vixi.  (I  have  not  lived  iu  vain). 


420  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

works  as  God  gives  hiin  strength,  and  meets  with  a  greater  or 
less  reward  at  the  judgment  seat  of  man;  but  he  can  claim  no 
reward  at  the  judgment  seat  of  God.  God  owes  me  nothing, 
but  I  owe  God  much,  yea  all.'  These  are  memorable  words, 
spoken  in  death-bed  sincerity. 

"Hahnemann  is  dead,  but  his  mighty  truth  cannot  die;  so 
that  while  we  turn  sadder  and  wiser  from  the  deathbed  of  our 
great  Master,  who,  when  living,  taught  us  how  to  live,  and  now 
has  taught  us  how  to  die,  if  we  would  have  him  still  to  guide 
our  way,  we  must  seek  his  spirit,  and  may  it  prove  a  bond  of 
sacred  union  in  the  work  he  has  so  nobly  done;  and  while  we 
prosecute  this  we  shall  have  the  proud  gratification  that  we  are 
completing  his  labors  and  erecting  his  monument." 

In  the  same  number  of  the  British  Jotu^nal  appears  the  follow- 
ing: "Though  he  had  been  ill  for  many  weeks  before,  few  of 
those  around  him  anticipated  that  his  demise  was  near  at  hand; 
but  he  himself  seemed  to  have  expected  it,  as  some  months  be- 
fore he  said  to  a  friend,  'It  is  perhaps  time  that  I  quit  this  earth, 
but  I  leave  it  all  and  always  in  the  hands  of  my  God.  My  head 
is  full  of  truth  for  the  good  of  mankind,  and  I  have  no  wish  to 
live  but  in  so  far  as  I  can  serve  my  fellowmen.' 

"  His  intellect  remained  quite  unclouded  to  the  last,  and  but 
a  few  moments  before  his  death  he  uttered  some  epithet  of  en- 
dearment to  his  wife,  and  pressed  the  hand  of  his  favorite  serv- 
ant, who  was  supporting  him  in  his  arms." 

Albrecht  writes:  "How  deeply  it  grieved  us  when  on  the 
loth  day  of  July,  1S43,  and  therefore  just  one  month  before  a 
convention  of  Homoeopathic  physicians  was  to  be  held  in  Dres- 
den under  the  direction  of  Dr.  Trinks,  President  of  the  Board  of 
Health,  we  read  the  following  communication:  'Homoeopathy 
has  suffered  a  great  loss.  Its  founder,  Samuel  Hahnemann,  the 
Nestor  of  German  physicians,  died  yesterday  morning  at  five 
o'clock  in  his  eighty  eighth  year.  The  sorrow  on  account  of 
his  death  is  extraordinarily  great,  and  his  funeral  may  be  one  of 
the  largest  ever  solemnized  in  Paris.'  " 


BURIAL    OF    HAHNEMANN,  42 1 


CHAPTER  IvXXVIII. 

BURIAL   OF   HAHNEMANN — MEETINGS    OP    RESPECT — TRANS- 
LATIONS  OP   RUMMEL'S  POEM. 

It  was  the  wish  of  the  many  friends  and  disciples  of  Hahne- 
mann living  in  Paris  to  honor  and  show  him  respect  by  attend- 
ing his  funeral.  But  he  had  none.  The  time  of  his  burial  was 
kept  a  secret.  The  following  account  appeared  in  the  British 
Journal  of  Homoeopathy  .•* 

"Though  her  union  with  the  illustrious  Founder  of  Homoe- 
opathy had  been  so  profitable  to  Madame  Hahnemann,  her  grati- 
tude towards  him  did  not  assume  the  form  of  wasting  any  of  the 
money  he  had  earned  on  ostentatious  funeral  obsequies.  Proba- 
bly she  thought  that  as  expensive  pompes  funebres  would  not 
profit  the  dead,  she  might  as  well  practice  a  strict  economy  in 
the  matter  of  his  burial.  Many  of  Hahnemann's  friends  in  Paris 
were  desirous  of  testifying  their  respect  for  him  by  attending  his 
body  to  the  grave,  but  this  wish  his  widow  disappointed  by 
keeping  the  time  of  his  funeral  a  profound  secret.  Early  one 
morning  a  common  hearse  drove  into  the  courtyard  of  the  man- 
sion in  the  Faubourg  St.  Honore,  the  coffin  was  put  into  it,  and 
the  hearse  was  speedily  driven  off  to  the  Montmartre  Cemetery, 
followed  on  foot  by  the  bereaved  widow;  by  Hahnemann's 
daughter,  Madame  L/iebe,  and  her  son;  and  a  young  doctor 
named  Lethiere.  These  were  the  only  mourners.  The  body 
was  consigned  to  an  old  vault  without  any  ceremony,  religious 
or  otherwise,  and  to  this  day,  we  understand,  there  is  no  tomb- 
stone or  inscription  to  distinguish  his  obscure  grave,  so  it  would 
now  be  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to  discover  the  last  resting- 
place  of  the  great  man." 

Dr.  Puhlmann,  in  the  Leipziger  Popidaire  Zeitschrift  fur 
Homoopathie,  July  i,  1893,  says:  "As  early  as  six  o'clock,  in  the 
morning  in  gloom  and  rain,  on  July  11,  1843,  a  funeral  proces- 
sion moved  through  the  streets  of  Paris  to  the  Cemetery  of  Mont- 
martre. Only  a  few  persons  walked  behind  the  hearse,  which 
bore,  encased  in  a  plain  coffin,  the  worthy  remains  of  a  man  who 

*  Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  xxxvi.,  p.  301. 


422  LIFE    OP    HAHNEMANN. 

had  begun  fifty  years  before  to  reform  radically  the  system  of 
healing — a  German  physician  whose  corpse  was  to  be  interred  in 
a  foreign  land — Dr.  Samuel  Hahnemann. 

"For  many  years  the  aged  physician  had  suffered  every  spring 
from  bronchial  catarrh,  but  had  always  completely  recovered 
again;  so  that  the  customary  return  of  this  disease,  which 
attacked  him  again  about  the  middle  of  April,  1843,  had  no 
special  significance.  But  it  was  to  be  his  last  sickness.  The 
aged  man  grew  weaker  and  weaker.  And  sometimes,  when 
paroxysms  of  suflfocation  or  choking  set  in,  they  occasioned 
much  anxiety.  But  the  dying  embers  of  the  fire  of  life  in  the 
venerable  founder  of  Homoeopathy  always  rekindled;  and 
although  he  predicted  his  own  death,  his  family  would  not 
believe  that  his  end  was  so  near.  Hence  his  death,  so  soon  fol- 
lowing on  the  second  of  July,  was  quite  unexpected  to  them. 
His  widow  could  scarcely  realize  her  great  loss;  and,  in  her 
bewilderment,  omitted  to  send  notice  of  his  funeral  to  relatives 
and  friends. 

"But  she  went  to  the  proper  magistrate  to  get  permission  to 
have  his  remains  embalmed,  so  that  their  entombment  might  be 
delayed  as  long  as  possible.  She  obtained  the  permission,  and 
Ganal,  the  most  celebrated  embalmer  of  his  day,  discharged 
with  great  skill  the  duties  assigned  to  him.  Then,  for  the  first 
time,  she  issued  notices  of  the  funeral,  and  relatives  and  friends 
thus  knew  of  the  actual  decease  of  the  great  man,  whom  the 
daily  press  during  the  few  months  preceding  had  repeatedly 
reported  to  be  dead. 

"  The  hour  of  the  funeral  services,  however,  was  not  stated  in 
the  notices.  The  many  tokens  of  love  and  sympathy,  which 
are  sent  to  the  house  of  mourning  in  the  form  of  crosses  and 
palm  leaves,  would  have  put  the  sorrowing  widow  in  a  frame  of 
mind  in  which  she  would  no  longer  have  had  control  of  her 
thoughts,  wishes  and  purposes;  and  hence  the  entombment  of 
the  body  on  that  morning  early,  without  the  many  admirers  of 
the  deceased  having  any  knowledge  of  it.  Instead  of  an  impos- 
ing funeral  procession,  as  the  world- renowned  physician  had 
deserved,  there  were  in  the  procession  only  the  sorrowing  widow, 
the  deceased's  daughter,  Madame  Suss,  and  her  son,  who  had 
hastened  hither  from  London,  the  Homoeopathic  physician,  Dr. 
lyCthiere,  and  the  servants  of  the  household. 


BURIAL   OF   HAHNEMANN.  423 

"A  monumental  stone  with  the  inscription:  '  Chretian  Frederic 
Samuel  Hahnemann,'  on  the  left  side  of  Section  16  of  Mont- 
martre  Cemetery,  marks  the  spot  where  the  deceased  was  laid  in 
his  eternal  resting  place.  This  resting-place,  as  well  as  those  of 
many  other  celebrated  men  buried  in  Moutmartre,  as,  for  instance, 
that  of  the  poet  Heinrich  Heine,  belongs  to  those  historic  sepul- 
chres that  are  kept  in  repair  at  the  expense  of  the  government, 
when  relatives  no  longer  care  for  their  departed." 

Concerning  this  funeral,  Albrecht  writes:  "In  order  to  show 
that  it  is  a  matter  of  no  consequence  to  us  to  place  in  a  favorable 
light  an  event  interwoven  with  the  catastrophe  of  Hahnemann's 
life-drama,  or  to  work  it  up  in  any  partisan  sense  and  erect 
thereon  a  showy  structure  of  artistic  finish,  and  in  order  to  re- 
main entirely  free  of  prejudice  also,  we  will  give  here  a  manu- 
script report  of  the  interment  of  Hahnemann's  earthly  remains. 
Of  course  Melanie  plays  a  very  conspicuous  part  in  the  obsequies. 
Hahnemann's  body  was  embalmed,  laid  in  an  exceedingly  plain 
wooden  cofiin,  lined  with  zinc,  and  placed  in  a  vault,  in  which 
Melanie  had  already  buried  two  friends.  All  the  cofiins  are 
visible  through  a  grated  door.  At  the  hour  that  Hahnemann 
was  buried  the  rain  poured  down  in  torrents.  The  funeral 
cortege  was  very  small  (einfach),  consisting  only  of  Melanie, 
daughter  Amalie,  Dr.  Suss,  Uncle  I^eopold  Suss  and  the  servants 
of  the  household." 

He  further  says  that  the  funeral  occurred  on  the  rainy  morn- 
ing of  August  II,  1843,  and  continues  as  follows:  "No  splendid 
monument  is  required  for  Hahnemann.  Over  his  tomb,  like  the 
angel  with  the  leaf  of  eternal  peace,  lingers  the  heaven-born 
consciousness  of  a  life  devoted  to  duty,  science,  art,  the  welfare 
of  mankind  and  the  service  of  God.  By  the  side  of  this  angel 
stands  another,  the  certainty  that  nothing  really  good,  really 
beneficial,  can  ever  perish,  but  defies  death  and  the  grave,  con- 
tinuing in  everlasting  activity,  and  thus  identifying  itself  with 
the  highest  order  of  things  and  the  government  of  the  universe. 
A  third  angel  hovers  there,  revealing  to  our  gaze  the  name  of 
Hahnemann,  and  the  significant  words  ' Non  inutilis  vixV"^  are 
graven  there  as  with  a  sunbeam." 

The  following  account  of  the  burial  ma}^  be  found  in  the  Honi- 

*I  have  not  lived  in  vain.  Hahnemann  wrote  these  words  as  a  suitable 
inscription  for  his  own  monument  on  July  28,  1839. 


424  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

ceopathic  World. -"^^  "Madame  Hahnemann  buried  her  husband 
with  less  decency  and  less  regard  than  that  which  is  shown  to 
the  poorest  of  our  sorrowing  poor.  Many  were  the  applications 
and  requests  of  his  admirers  and  disciples  to  be  allowed  to  attend 
his  funeral,  but  all  to  no  purpose.  The  day  and  hour  of  the 
funeral  were  kept  a  perfect  secret.  Early  one  morning  in  July, 
1843,  a  common  hearse  drew  up  in  the  courtyard  of  Hahnemann's 
mansion,  the  cofl&n  was  quickly  lifted  into  it,  and  as  quickly  as 
the  hearse  had  entered  the  courtyard  so  it  drove  away  again. 
His  wife,  his  daughter,  his  grandson  and  a  young  Dr.  I,ethiere 
were  the  only  mourners  who  followed  the  hearse — on  foot — to 
the  neighboring  cemetery  of  Montmartre. 

"There  Hahnemann's  coffin  was  pushed  in  a  most  unseemly 
manner  into  an  old  vault,  where  two  coffins  had  already  been 
previously  placed  by  Madame  Hahnemann.  There  w^as  no 
funeral  ceremony  whatever,  no  funeral  rites,  no  blessing  on  the 
distinguished  dead." 

Dr.  Suss  Hahnemann,  who  was  the  grandson  present,  says  of 
this  funeral :  f  "The  ostentatious  affection  which  the  wife  dis- 
played towards  her  husband  whilst  alive  soon  vanished  after  his 
death.  The  immortal  Founder  of  HomcEopathy  was  buried  like 
the  poorest  of  the  poor;  his  funeral  taking  place  as  early  in  the 
morning  as  six  o'clock,  under  a  pelting  rain,  a  common  hearse 
bearing  the  remains  of  the  great  man  to  his  last  rest,  only  his 
wife,  his  widowed  daughter,  my  late  mother,  myself,  and  Dr. 
Lethiere  being  the  mourners  who  followed.  The  coffin  was 
deposited,  and  is  still  at  the  present  moment,  in  an  old  vault, 
where  his  'devoted  wife  had  already  deposited  the  remains  of  two 
aged  friends,  so  that  Hahnemann's  wish  to  have  on  his  tomb- 
stone the  words  written,  '  Non  inutilis  vixi,'  remains  in  abej^- 
ance." 

After  the  death  of  Madame  Hahnemann,  in  1878,  the  most  of 
the  above  statements  were  printed.  In  the  obituary  of  that  lady, 
printed  in  the  British  Journal  of  Homceopathy  for  July,  1878,  the 
account  of  Hahnemann's  obscure  interment  is  given.  In  the 
January  number,  1879,  of  the  same  Journal  is  published  an 
answer  from  one  M.  Sanches,  who  signs  himself  a  man  of  letters 


'^Hom.  World,  Vol.  xiii.,  p.  349. 

"^  Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  xxii.,  p.  679. 


MEETINGS   OF   RESPECT.  425 

attached  to  the  Prefecture  of  the  Seine. 'i^  He  advances  excuses 
for  Madame  Hahnemann's  course.  He  excuses  the  visit  to 
Coethen  in  masculine  garments;  says  that  Madame  Hahnemann 
was  not  influenced  by  avarice,  and  that  after  her  husband's 
death  she  continued  to  treat  patients,  but  gratuitously;  that 
the  obscure  funeral  was  at  Hahnemann's  own  wish;  and  the 
reason  why  his  grave  was  not  distinguished  by  some  sign  was 
that  she  feared  the  malicious  attacks  upon  it  of  jealous  physi- 
cians. However,  it  thus  happened,  and,  so  far  as  the  compiler 
"has  been  able  to  discover,  Hahnemann  still  rests  in  the  unknown 
grave  in  the  old  cemetery  on  the  hill  of  Montmartre,  in  Paris. 

The  New  York  Homoeopathic  Physicians'  Society  called  a 
■special  meeting  on  the  loth  of  August,  immediately  after  the 
news  of  Hahnemann's  death  had  been  received,  and  Dr.  Gray 
was  selected  to  pronounce,  at  a  future  occasion,  a  eulogy  upon 
the  illustrious  man.  It  was  decided  to  hold  this  meeting  on  the 
loth  of  April  of  the  following  year.  The  New  York  Homoeo- 
pathic Society,  of  which  William  Cullen  Bryant  was  the  Presi- 
dent, also  assembled  in  order  to  co-operate  with  the  Physicians' 
Society.  A  letter  of  condolence  was  sent  to  Madame  Hahne- 
mann, dated  New  York,  August  9th,  1843.! 

In  Philadelphia  a  printed  circular  was  sent  about  for  signa- 
tures.    It  read  as  follows  : 

''To  3felanie  D'Hervilly,   Widow  of  S.  Hahnemann^  and  to  His 
Children  and  Grandchildreji  : 

"  Fully  sensible  that  to  you  who  stood  nearest  to  the  venerable 
Hahnemann,  the  sorrow  occasioned  by  his  decease  must  be  the 
■severest,  we  desire  to  send  a  word  of  condolence  from  this  far 
land.  You  will  receive  this  expression  of  our  sympathy  as  a 
token  also  that  he  still  lives — still  lives  not  only  in  the  world  to 
which  he  is  gone,  but  here  also,  where  he  was  and  where  we 
yet  are.  He  lives  in  the  great  principles  which  he  asserted,  he 
lives  in  the  thankful  regards  of  the  great  multitude  whom  he 
has  relieved.  He  lives,  for  he  is  still  ministering  to  human 
infirmities,  still  alleviating  human  suffering;  and  he  will  live 
so  long  as  the  healing  art  continues  to  be  a  blessing  to  the 
world." 

Dr.  Hering,  in  speaking  of  the  death  of  Dr.  Hahnemann,  said: 

*Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  xxxvii.,  p.  98. 
-\ Horn.  Exam.,  Vol.  iii.,  p.  319. 


426  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

"When  at  last  the  fatal  hour  had  struck  for  the  sublime  old 
man  who  had  preserved  his  vigor  almost  to  his  last  moments, 
then  it  was  that  the  heart  of  his  consort  who  had  made  his  last 
years  the  brightest  of  his  life  was  on  the  point  of  breaking. 
Many  of  us  seeing  those  who  are  dearest  to  us  engaged  in  the 
death  struggle  would  exclaim,  why  shouldst  thou  suffer  so 
much  !  So  too  exclaimed  Hahnemann's  consort.  "Why  shouldst 
thou  who  hast,  alleviated  so  much  suffering,  suffer  in  thy  last 
hour?  This  is  unjust,  Providence  should  have  allotted  to  thee 
a  painless  death.'  Then  he  raised  his  voice  as  he  had  often 
done  when  he  exhorted  his  disciples  to  hold  fast  to  the  great 
principle  of  Homoeopathy.  'Why  should  I  have  been  thus  dis- 
tinguished? Each  of  us  should  here  attend  to  the  duties  which 
God  has  imposed  upon  him.  Although  men  may  distinguish 
more  or  less,  yet  no  one  has  any  merit.  God  owes  nothing  to 
me,  I  to  Him  all.'  With  these  words  he  took  leave  of  the 
world,  of  his  friends,  and  his  foes." 

The  calmness  and  resignation  with  which  Hahnemann  viewed 
death  is  well  expressed  by  words  written  by  him  in  a  letter  to 
his  dear  friend  and  pupil,  Stapf,  in  18 16:*  "We  want  but  a  little 
space  of  the  completion  of  our  course.  Already  does  the  last 
hour,  the  last  minute,  of  my  passage  to  the  Father  of  purity  and 
virtue  stand  vividly  before  my  eyes,  in  which,  with  my  cold 
finger,  I  shall  point,  almost  imperceptibly,  upward;  and  then 
comes  the  last  moment.  Pleasant,  joyful,  grateful  is  that  hour 
to  the  man  who  has  striven  to  enable  himself  to  meet  it 
worthily." 

At  a  festival  held  on  the  loth  of  August,  1843,  in  Dresden,  at 
which  the  minds  of  those  present  turned  on  Hahnemann,  Dr. 
Rummel  delivered  the  following  poem  in  his  memory:! 

AN  HAHNEMANN. 

(Geb.  d.  10  April,  1755  zu  Meissen,  gest.  d.  2  Juli  1843  zu  Paris.) 
Zutn  10  August,  1843. 

Du  willst  schou  schlafen,  milder  Wahrheitspfleger  ? 

Des  ueuen  Lichtes  Strahlen  rotlien  kaum 

Der  alten  Nachte  tiefsten  Wolkensaum 

Und  Deine  Freunde  schleichen  trag'  uud  trager. 

Steh'  auf,  als  Vaterlands  vertrieb'ner  Klager, 

*Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  iii.,  p.  139. 

■\Allg.  horn.  Zeitung,  Vol.  xxv.,  p.  7.     "Lebeu  und  Wirken,"  p.  83. 


TRANSLATIONS    OF    RUMMEL  S    POEM.  427 

Und  doun're  aus  dem  selbstzufried'neu  Traum 
Sie  auf  vou  der  Gewohnheit  liebem  Flaum, 
Dass  se  erwacheu  niuuterer  und  reger. 
Tritt  zu  deu  Feindeii  mit  der  Zornestniene, 
Mit  der  Du:   "  Meuscbenmorder  "  riesst,  heran, 
Ein  Hamletsgeist,  ein  Schreckeu  selbst  fiir  Kiihne, 
Zerstore  ihreu  Duukel,  ihrea  Wahn. 
Dann  erst  reich'  Deiue  kalte  Hand  zu  Siihne 
Und  schlafe,  wie  Du  jetzt  zu  friih  gethan." 

In  the  same  paper  for  April  i,  1844,  appeared  the  following: 
"  We  have  received  an  imitation  in  French,  published  on  the 
loth  of  last  August,  of  the  German  poem,  by  Rummel,  on  the 
death  of  Hahnemann,  and  we  give  it  a  place  in  our  Gazette  the 
more  gladly  because  it  may  be  known  to  but  a  few  of  our  readers, 
and  because  it  is  from  the  pen  of  the  widow  of  the  deceased. 

"A  HAHNEMANN." 
"  Le  10  AouT,  1843." 

"  Tu  veux  dormir  deja,  toi  de  la  verite 
Vieux  tuteur  fatigue  !  la  nouvelle  clarte 
Dore  a  peine  les  bords  du  tenebreux  uuage, 
Fils  trompeur  de  I'antique  nuit; 
Et  desunis,  tes  amis  sans  courage, 
Se  traiuent  lachement  et  suivent  au  passage 
L'habitude  qui  les  conduit. 
Toi  dont  I'exil  accuse  la  Patrie  ! 
Tonne  sur  eux,  des  feux  de  ton  genie 
Brule  leurs  coeurs  !  bientot  regeneres, 
Qu'ils  triomphent  partout  sous  tes  lauriers  sacres. 
Puis  de  faux  dieux,  destructeur  intrepide, 
Aux  prophetes  nienteurs  va  crier:  Homicide  ! 
Aux  rayons  de  I'astre  sauveur 
Que  I'efFroi  les  poursuive  et  le  remord  veugeur  ! 
A  la  raison  convertis  leur  folie; 
Qu'ils  adorent  enfin  la  sainte  verite, 
Lors  seulement  tends  une  main  amie, 
Bienfaiteur  des  Humains,  O  toi  !  pere  d'Higie, 
Savoure  I'immortalite." 
"Par  Madame  Hahnemann,  Imitation  libre  des  Vers  allemands,  publics  a 
Dresde,  par  M.  le  dr  Rummel." 

Which  freely  translated  is  as  follows: 

"To  HAHNEMANN,  August  10,  1S43." 
"  Sleep  gently  wrappeth  thee  now  in  her  fold. 
Thee,  truth's  grandest  teacher,  weary  and  old, 
A  new  light  just  gilds  the  edge  of  the  cloud 
That,  born  of  old  night,  appals  like  a  shroud. 


428  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

Disunited,  thy  frieuds  halt  on  the  way; 

In  old  paths  of  habit,  faint-hearted,  stray. 

Thou,  whose  exile  shames  thy  own  fatherland, 

Thunder  above  them  !  burn  their  hearts  where  they  stand 

With  thy  fire  of  soul  !  till,  wakened,  they  find 

In  th}'  sacred  laurels  new  triumphs  twined. 

Then  to  the  false  gods,  destroyer,  well  tried. 

To  prophets  of  lies  then  cry — homicide  1 

May  the  brilliant  light  of  thy  guardian  star, 

A  fear  and  remorse,  pursue  them  afar  ! 

Hold  outward  thy  friendly  hand  as  of  yore; 

From  folly  to  reason  turn  them  once  more. 

That  at  last  the  holy  truth  they  adore. 

Benefactor  of  men,  O,  thou  father  of  health  ! 

Art  well  dowered  at  last  with  Immortality's  wealth  ! 


CHAPTER  LXXIX. 

PERSONALITY — LESSONS      FROM     HIS      LIFE — BIRTHPLACE — PER- 
.SONAL   TRAITS — EXAMINATION    OF    A   STUDENT. 

Such  was  the  life  of  a  great  benefactor  to  mankind.  Born  in 
the  middle  of  a  century  whose  influence  shaped  our  own;  a  cen- 
tury prodigal  in  great  men;  in  the  year  when  Frederick,  des- 
tined to  be  called  The  Great,  was  masquerading  among  the  art 
galleries  of  Holland;  wandering  in  boyhood  on  the  fair  hills  of 
Meissen  when  all  Europe  was  engaged  in  the  Seven  Years'  War 
and  Saxony  was  crushed  by  iron  heels;  going  forth  the  young 
scholar  to  Academic  Leipsic  just  when  that  unfortunate  monarch, 
Eouis  XVI.,  was  ascending  the  guillotine-shadowed  throne  of 
France;  when  George  the  Third  was  king  and  America  was  only  a 
colony  of  England;  when  Rousseau  was  yet  writing  of  the  Rights 
of  Man;  when  cynical  Voltaire  was  mentor  to  Prussian  Frederick. 

A  man  in  his  prime,  he  was  patiently  searching  for  nature's 
law  of  cure  when  the  world  was  appalled  by  the  Reign  of  Terror; 
when  the  little  sous-lieutenant  of  artillery,  Bonaparte,  saw  with 
indignant  eyes  the  sans  culottes  of  Paris,  drunk  with  blood,  be- 
siege the  dissolute  court  of  Marie  Antoinette;  when  noble  Mirabeau 
yet  lived;  when  Marat  and  Robespierre  led  in  France  the  Devil's 
Dance  of  Death. 

He  was  of  the  time  of  the  Boston  tea  party  and  the  declara- 


PERSONALITY.  429 

tion  on  the  State  House  steps  of  Philadelphia;  of  the  day  of 
Washington  and  Lafayette.  He  saw  Napoleon  build  an  empire 
on  the  ashes  of  a  revolution;  saw  him  march  across  the  lands 
of  Germany;  saw  Austerlitz;  saw  the  dismal  retreat  from  Mos- 
cow, and  acted  there  as  good  physician  to  the  sick  and  suffering 
army  of  1813.  He  listened  to  the  echoes  of  Waterloo — the  story  of 
St.  Helena.  He  left  Germany  for  brilliant  Paris  when  Bis- 
marck was  a  student  of  twenty;  he,  the  recluse,  the  scholar,  the 
thinker,  became  in  his  old  age  the  fashionable  physician  in  the 
gayest  city  in  the  world. 

He  lived  through  the  changes  of  a  world's  century;  saw  his 
system  of  healing  rise  from  contempt  to  honor;  knew  hardship; 
died  in  luxury  in  the  world's  capital. 

Scholar  whom  scholars  honored  and  respected.  Physician 
whom  physicians  feared.  Philologist  with  whom  philologists 
dreaded  to  dispute.  Chemist  who  taught  chemists.  Philosopher 
whom  adversity  nor  honor  had  power  to  change. 

Hahnemann,  one  of  the  figures  standing  out  boldly  from  the 
canvas  of  that  great  century  on  which  are  painted  the  exploits  of 
many  remarkable  men. 

Jean  Paul  Richter,  "  the  only  one,"  who  was  in  Leipsic  at  the 
same  time  that  Hahnemann  was,  and  most  probably  knew  him 
personally,  thus  speaks  of  him:*  " Hahnemann,  this  extraordi- 
nary, double  brain  (Doppelkopf)  of  philosophy  and  erudition, 
whose  system  must  eventually  lead  to  the  ruin  of  the  common 
recipe-crammed  brains,  but  which  as  yet  has  been  little  accepted 
b}^  practitioners,  and  is  more  detested  than  examined." 

That  this  man  was  a  scholar,  a  thinker,  was  of  indomitable 
will,  was  respected,  is  not  to  be  denied.  He  was  a  careful  man, 
painstaking,  methodical.  In  his  experiments,  exhaustive.  That 
he  in  a  great  measure  changed  in  character  during  the  last  years 
of  his  life  is  true.  From  being  very  liberal  he  became  opinion- 
ated, unyielding.  From  the  time  of  his  persecution  at  Leipzig 
he  seems  to  have  put  aside  all  liberality  and  to  have  become 
miserly  in  disposition  and  unyielding  in  character.  That  he 
was  hardly  liberal  enough  for  his  German  colleagues  his  history 
well  shows.  That  he  injured  the  spread  of  Homoeopathy  in 
Germany  by  his  treatment  of  his  disciples  regarding  the  Leipsic 
hospital  is  certain.     And   yet  to  the  end  of  his  life  in  his  home 

*  Rutherford  Russell's  "History  and  Heroes  of  Medicine,"  p.  418. 


430  IvIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

relations  he  was  always  the  same  good,  tender,  kindly  philoso- 
pher and  husband  and  father  as  before  the  calumny  of  the  outer 
world  had  embittered  him.  But  had  he  not  ample  excuse  for 
his  firmness  and  reluctance  to  relent  from  his  one  and  unwaver- 
ing platform  of  conduct? 

His  poverty  influenced  his  life.  His  lessons  in  thinking  were 
never  forgotten;  the  lamp  of  clay  taught  its  lesson.  Poor, 
obliged  to  translate  through  the  long  night  hours,  he  in  that 
translation,  and  the  study  necessary,  laid  the  foundations  for  the 
marvelous  knowledge  that  he  afterwards  exhibited.  And  through 
it  all  may  be  seen  that  unwavering  faith  in  the  goodness  of  God 
who  must  have  endowed  mankind  with  some  sure  method  of 
healing.  Hahnemann  believed  that  his  discovery  was  a  gift  to 
him  from  God  in  trust  for  the  benefit  of  his  fellow-man. 

The  house  in  Meissen  in  which  Hahnemann  was  born  is  still 
standing  (1893).  It  is  situated  at  the  corner  of  the  Hahnemann 
Place  and  the  Newmarket.*  It  was  formerly  known  as  the 
Kckhouse,  at  the  upper  end  of  the  Meatway  and  close  by  the 
Newmarket,  No.  459  of  the  new  Brandkataster.  With  the  ex- 
ception of  a  few  needful  repairs,  it  is  to-day  as  when  Hahnemann 
was  born.  It  is  a  plain,  old  fashioned  building  of  three  stories 
with  a  steep  apexed  roof,  and  towers  high  above  the  surround- 
ing buildings. f  A  lamp,  looking  like  a  Philadelphia  street  lamp, 
is  suspended  from  the  angle  of  the  house  front.  The  house  front 
looks  upon  the  Hahnemann  Place,  and  near  the  corner  are  two 
large  windows  with  wooden  shutters,  and  between  them  a  double 
door. 

Over  the  front  window,  between  the  first  and  second  story,  a 
sign  is  fixed  against  the  wall,  bearing  in  large  letters  the  legend, 
"Restaurant  Hahnemann."  Beside  this  sign,  and  directly  over 
the  door,  a  niche  in  the  wall  holds  a  bust  of  Hahnemann,  while 
on  the  other  side  of  the  bust  is  an  iron  tablet,  set  in  the  wall, 
bearing  the  following  inscription:  "  Chr.  Fr.  Samuel  Hahne- 
mann, the  Founder  of  Homoeopathy,  was  born  here  the  nth  of 
April,  1755."  Further  down  this  side  of  the  old  house  is  still 
another  door,  and  over  this  there  is  a  sign  reading:  "  Schmied- 
ewerkstatt,  A.  Schone. ' '     Beyond  this  are  two  shuttered  windows 

*  Hundertjahrigen  Geburtstage  Samuel  Hahnemann's,   Dessau,   1855,  p. 

25- 

tVillers'  International  Homoeopathic  Annual,  Leipzig,  1891. 


LESSONS    FROM    HIS    LIFE  43 1 

of  a  room  on  the  ground  floor,  and  within  that  room  Hahnemann 
was  born. 

Hahnemann  was  an  abstemious  man.  His  only  habit  of  self- 
indulgence  was  his  pipe.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Everest  once  asked  him 
why  he  smoked  and  he  replied:*  "Oh,  it's  an  idle  habit  con- 
tracted when  I  had  to  sit  up  every  other  night  in  order  to  get 
bread  for  my  children,  while  I  was  pursuing  my  own  investiga- 
tions by  day."     This  habit  continued  until  the  end  of  his  life. 

He  possessed  only  simple  ways,  disliking  all  ostentation.  In 
a  letter  to  Stapf,  dated  December  17,  1816,  he  saysif  "No  more 
enconiums  of  me;  I  altogether  dislike  them,  for  I  feel  myself  to 
be  nothing  more  than  an  upright  man  who  merely  does  his  duty. 
Let  us  express  our  regard  for  one  another  only  in  simple  words 
and  conduct  indicating  mutual  respect." 

"Hahnemann's  handwriting  was  small  and  neat  but  firm,  and 
he  preferred  to  write  on  small-sized  paper,  as  appears  from  his 
letters  and  notes.  He  took  pains  to  write  every  letter  distinctly 
and  he  wrote  a  beautiful  hand.  He  was  very  particular  in  his 
forms  of  expression,  and  often  we  find  in  one  line  two  or  three 
corrections.  Up  to  his  latest  years  he  read  and  wrote  without 
spectacles.":!: 

Hull  says:  "The  Register  of  his  Consultations,  every  day 
increasing  in  magnitude,  forms  at  this  moment  a  stupendous 
medical  encyclopaedia. 

"We  have  seen  upon  one  of  the  shelves  of  Hahnemann's 
library  thirty-six  quarto  volumes  of  at  least  five  hundred  pages 
each,  entirely  written  by  his  own  hand;  and  to  those  who  are 
curious  as  to  the  penmanship  of  the  venerable  octogenarian,  who 
has  never  used  spectacles,  we  can  testify  to  writing  as  fine  and 
beautiful  as  the  mig7ionne  of  Didot.|| 

Dudgeon  writes:§  "We  may  form  some  idea  of  Hahnemann's 
immense  industry  when  we  consider  that  he  proved  about  ninety 
different  medicines,  that  he  wrote  upwards  of  seventy  original 
works  on  chemistry  and  medicine,  some  of  which  were  in  several 
thick  volumes,  and  translated  about  twenty- four  works  from  the 

*"Hom.  in  1851,"  London,  p.  306. 

■\Brit.Jotir.  Horn.,  Vol.  iii.,  p.  141. 

jAmeke's  "History  of  Homoeopathy,"  p.  164. 

\\Hom.  Examiner,  Vol.  ii.,  p.  8.     Hull's  "Life  of  Hahnemann." 

I  "Biography  of  Hahnemann." 


432  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

Knglish,  French,  Italian  and  I^atin.  on  chemistry,  medicine, 
agriculture  and  general  literature,  many  of  which  were  in  more 
than  one  volume." 

He  ever  had  an  exalted  opinion  of  the  dignity  of  the  medical 
profession.  In  alluding  to  his  discovery  of  the  prophylactic  for 
scarlet  fever,  he  said:  "The  furtherance  of  every  means,  be  it 
ever  so  small,  that  can  save  human  life,  that  can  bring  health 
and  security  (a  God  of  love  invented  this  blessed  and  most  won- 
drous of  arts!)  should  be  a  sacred  object  to  the  true  physician; 
chance  or  the  labor  of  the  physician  has  discovered  this  one." 

Again,  in  writing  of  the  duties  of  the  nurse  and  the  physician 
in  the  time  of  pestilence:^^  "They  are  two  persons  ordained  by 
God,  and  placed,  like  Uriah  in  the  battle,  in  the  thickest  of  the 
fight — forlorn  hopes,  quite  close  to  the  advancing  enemy,  with- 
out any  hours  of  relief  from  their  irksome  guard — two  very 
much  misunderstood  beings,  who  sacrifice  themselves  at  hard- 
earned  wages  for  the  public  weal,  and,  in  order  to  obtain  a  civic 
crown,  brave  the  life-destroying,  poisoned  atmosphere,  deafened 
by  the  cries  of  agony  and  the  groans  of  death." 

The  following  is  a  letter  written  by  Hahnemann  which  gives 
his  idea  of  what  should  constitute  an  examination  in  Homoeo- 
pathy: 

'^  Dear  Mr.  Steinestel:  I  have  much  pleasure  in  making  your 
acquaintance,  and  agreeably  to  your  desire  I  put  to  you  some 
questions,  from  your  answers  to  which  I  shall  be  able  to  judge 
of  your  capability  to  practice  Homoeopathically  and  to  cure 
patients  of  all  sorts. 

"  I.  What  course  does  the  true  physician  pursue  in  order  to 
obtain  a  knowledge  of  what  is  morbid,  consequently  what  he 
has  to  cure  in  the  patient  ? 

"  2.  Why  does  a  name  of  a  disease  not  suffice  to  instruct  the 
physician  as  to  what  he  has  to  do  in  order  to  cure  the  patient  ? 
For  example,  why  should  he  not  at  once  give  Cinchona  bark 
when  the  patient  says  he  has  got  fever  (as  the  Allopath  does)  ? 

"  3.  How  does  the  true  physician  learn  what  each  medicine  is 
useful  for,  arid  consequently  in  what  morbid  states  it  can  be 
serviceable  and  curative  ? 

"4.  Why  does  the  true  physician  view  with  horror  the  pre- 

*  Dudgeon's  "Hahnemann,"  1852. 


EXAMINATION    OF    A    STUDENT.  435 

scribing  of  several  medicinal  substances  mingled  together  in 
one  prescription  for  a  disease  ? 

"  5.  Why  does  it  shock  the  true  physician  to  see  blood  drawn 
from  any  patient,  whether  by  venesection  or  blood-sucking- 
leeches,*  or  cupping-glasses  ? 

"6.  Why  is  it  an  abomination  for  the  true  physician  to  see- 
Opium  given  by  the  Allopath  for  all  sorts  of  pains,  for  diarrhoea, 
or  for  sleeplessness  ? 

"7.  Why  does  the  Homoeopathist  prepare  gold,  plumbago, 
lycopodium-pollen,  culinary  salt,  etc.,  by  triturating  them  for 
hours  with  a  non-medical  substance,  such  as  sugar  of  milk,  and 
by  shaking  a  small  dissolved  portion  of  them  with  water  and 
alcohol,  which  is  termed  dynamizing? 

"  8.  Wh)^  must  the  true  physician  not  give  his  patients  medi- 
cine for  a  single  symptom  (for  a  single  morbid  sensation)  ? 

"  9.  When  the  true  physician  has  given  the  patient  a  small  dose 
of  a  medicine  selected  by  reason  of  similarity  of  the  most  character- 
istic symptoms  of  the  disease,  that  is  to  say,  capable  of  itself 
producing  similar  symptoms  in  the  healthy  individual,  with  good 
results  (as  might  naturally  be  expected),  when  ought  he  to  ad- 
minister another  dose  of  medicine  ?  How  does  he  then  perceive 
what  medicine  he  ought  to  give  ? 

"  10.  Why  can  the  Homoeopathic  medicines  never  be  dis- 
pensed by  the  apothecary  without  injury  to  the  public? 

"When  you  shall  have  replied  to  these  questions  in  writing  I 
shall  be  able  to  judge  if  you  are  a  true  Homoeopathic  prac- 
titioner. 

"Hail  to  the  king  who  cherishes  only  wholesome  truth,  and 
who  with  a  vigorous  hand  overthrows  many  injurious  time- 
honored  customs;  such  an  one  is  the  viceregent  on  earth-  of  the 
all-bountiful  and  all-wise  Godhead  !"f 

*Blutsangende  Egel. 
■\BrU.Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  x.,  p.  167. 


434  LIFE   OF    HAHNEMANN. 


CHAPTER  LXXX. 

PROPERTY — HAPPINESS  IN  PARIS — THE  OLD  HOME  AT  COETHEN — 
HABITS  OF  LIFE — RELIGIOUS  FAITH. 

While — because  he  was  driven  from  one  town  to  another  for  a 
time  in  his  life — Hahnemann  was  poor,  yet  he  divided  a  fortune 
on  leaving  Germany. 

It  is  estimated  that  during  the  eight  years  which  he  passed  at 
Paris  he  amassed  a  fortune  of  4,000,000  francs.* 

That  Hahnemann  rigidly  followed  the  law  of  similia  as  it  is 
laid  down  in  the  "  Organon  "  is  very  certain.  There  are  some 
questions,  however,  regarding  his  modes  of  practice  that  have 
been  in  much  dispute.  The  principal  points  are:  Size  of  the 
dose.  Did  he  or  did  he  not  alternate  remedies?  Did  he  use 
auxiliaries  ?  The  question  will  be  discussed  in  a  separate  chapter. 

That  Hahnemann  was  perfectly  satisfied  and  happy  in  gay 
Paris  during  the  last  years  of  his  life  is  the  testimony  of  every 
one  who  knew  him  at  that  time.  He  himself  said  as  much. 
Ameke  writes  that  he  kept  up  a  constant  and  affectionate  corre- 
spondence with  his  family  in  Germany,  who  also  visited  him  in 
Paris.f 

It  has  been  said  that  during  his  residence  in  Paris  he  was  not 
permitted  to  receive  the  visits  of  his  colleagues.  That  he  had 
but  little  intercourse  with  medical  men. J  "Their  visits,  if  not 
absolutely  denied,  were  studiously  discouraged,  and  his  medical 
converse  was  almost  limited  to  non-medical  gobemouches,  who 
eagerly  swallowed  as  Gospel  everything  he  said  and  encouraged 
him  in  the  path  of  authorizing." 

In  an  article  published  in  an  English  Homoeopathic  journal  in 
1878,11  by  "A  Relative  of  the  Family,"  the  following  statements 
are  made: 

"Patients  who  could  not  pay  the  regular  physician's  fee  never 
saw  Hahnemann,  but  only   his  part)ier,  Madame   Hahnemann, 

*  Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  xxii.,  p.  678. 
tAmeke's  "History  of  Homoeopathy, "  p.  166. 
XBrit.  lour.  Horn.,  Vol.  xxiii.,  p.  664. 
\\Hom.  World,  Vol.  xiii.,  p.  348. 


HAPPINESS    IN    PARIS.  435 

who  managed  also  to  break  her  husband  of  his  favorite  habit  of 
smoking,  as  his  fashionable  patients  did  not  approve  of  a  doctor 
whose  consulting  room  gave  more  evidence  of  bird's  eye  than  of 
■eau  de  cologne.  Hahnemann,  when  living  in  Germany,  used  to 
smoke  from  morning  till  night,  but  when  in  Paris,  his  wife  said, 
II  faiit  changer  tout  cela,  and  all  was  changed.  She  gradually 
limited  him  to  only  one  pipe  a  day,  which  he  had  to  smoke  in  a 
small  corrider  of  his  great  mansion.  Only  those  who  know  the 
effects  of  this  comforting  weed  will  be  able  to  understand  the 
great  denial  Hahnemann  imposed  upon  himself  in  his  eightieth 
year,  when  he  reduced  his  allowance  to  one  pipe  a  day,  so  that 
there  should  be  no  obstacle  to  his  amassing  a  princely  fortune 
for  his  wife,  a  sweet,  unselfish  creature,  who  never  parted  with  a 
penny  to  any  member  of  his  family." 

The  English  Homoeopathic  journals,  who  chronicled  the  death 
of  Madame  Hahnemann,  almost  invariably  spoke  in  the  same  man- 
ner of  her.  It  is  the  duty  of  the  historian  to  relate  facts,  not  to 
•criticise.  It  would  seem,  however,  from  certain  accounts  of  the 
life  of  the  old  physician  in  Paris,  that  this  statement  about  the 
tobacco  is  somewhat  overdrawn.  Mrs.  Mowatt  (Helen  Berkley) 
particularly  mentions  the  long  painted  pipe,  the  bowl  of  which 
reached  nearly  to  his  knees,  that  he  only  removed  from  his 
mouth  long  enough  to  welcome  that  lady  to  his  presence.  Others 
also  write  of  his  smoking  constantly.  And  in  regard  to  the  aid 
refused  by  Madame  Hahnemann  to  the  German  relatives,  it  may 
be  that  she  thought  that  when  her  husband  had  divided  a  fortune 
with  his  children  before  leaving  Germany,  he  had  fulfilled  his 
duty  in  the  matter. 

Albrecht,  however,  also  says,  that  his  manner  of  life  was 
greatly  changed  at  Paris,  and  that  he  was  in  a  great  measure 
compelled  to  give  up  the  loved  tobacco. 

It  has  also  been  questioned  whether  Hahnemann's  second  mar- 
riage was  a  benefit  to  Homoeopathy.  Probably  its  principles  be- 
came better  known  in  Paris  than  had  the  old  man  remained  at 
Coethen.  Be  that  as  it  may,  he  was  happy  there,  and  as  he  had 
already  given  a  lifetime,  longer  than  that  usually  granted,  to  the 
good  of  mankind,  and  had  carefully  set  down  in  his  wonderful 
books  the  tenets  of  his  law  of  healing,  it  must  be  admitted  that 
he  was  hardly  to  be  blamed  if  during  the  few  last  years  of  his 
life  he  consulted  his  own  satisfaction  and  pleasure  even  at  the  ex- 
pense of  his  fellow-men. 


436  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

Albrecht  says:*  "The  friend  of  Hahnemann  wishes  to  know 
and  understand  in  what  manner  the  master  lived.  Not  in  his. 
hotel  in  Paris  is  it  described,  but  it  can  be  found  in  his  old  resi- 
dence at  Coethen. 

"The  house  that  Hahnemann  occupied  in  Coethen  from  1821 
to  1835,  yes,  even  the  library  in  which  he  wrote  his  world  re- 
nowned work,  from  the  devotion  of  his  youngest  daughter  Frau 
Dr.  Ivouise  Mossdorf,  is  unchanged. 

"It  stands  in  the  .Wallstrasse,  bright  and  beautiful,  where 
from  the  east  and  from  the  west  the  rays  of  light  converge  and 
mingle. 

"To  the  right  of  the  street  door  are  to  be  found  three  great 
windows  with  dark  green  shutters,  to  the  left  from  the  repaired 
side  are  two  windows.  The  first  story  has  a  stairway  with 
black  balusters,  with  large  round  windows,  the  spacious  hall  is 
lighted  by  one  large  window,  and  a  corrider  extends  the  length 
of  the  house.  The  living  room-on  the  right  hand  and  the  study 
on  the  left  contain  many  precious  mementoes  of  the  departed. 
The  window  of  the  dwelling  room  has  a  high  estrade.  In  the 
niche  and  window-frame  bloom  potted  plants,  opposite  to  the 
life-size,  half-length  portrait  of  Hahnemann  painted  in  oil  by  the 
artist  Schopenhauer.  On  the  secretary  stands,  under  a  high 
glass  case,  a  gilt  ^sculapius,  the  same  that  the  admirers  of  the 
great  man  had  presented  at  the  Doctor-Jubilee,  and  a  portrait- 
bust  modeled  by  Steinhauser.  The  principal  wall  is  adorned  by 
the  miniature  pictures  of  different  members  of  the  Hahnemann 
family  taken  before  the  time  of  the  photograph.  At  the  window 
stands  the  ancient  harpsichord  by  whose  means  Hahnemann  had 
passed  so  many  pleasant  evenings  with  his  family.  Behind  the 
parlor  may  be  found  a  small  sleeping  cabinet,  whence  one  reaches 
a  small  conservatory. 

"Opposite  to  this  the  kitchen  is  situated.  The  study  is  in  the 
same  condition  as  at  the  time  of  Hahnemann's  departure  for 
Paris.  There  still  stands  his  writing-desk  with  writing  mate- 
rials, pens,  etc.,  a  table  clock  for  which  he  had  great  fondness, 
and  which  he  would  wind  up  and  regulate  daily,  and  the  old 
mended  furniture.  Here  one  sees  the  fan  of  white  ivory,  the 
wedding  present  from  Hahnemann's  father  to  the  bride  of  his- 
son,  painted  with  his  own  hand.     It  pictures  the  master  visiting 

*  "  Leben  und  Wirken,"  p.  84. 


THE    OLD    HOME    AT    COETHEN.  437 

"his  first  patient,  sitting  b}'  the  bedside  givnng  him  medicine  from 
a  spoon,  while  the  expectant  wife,  recovered,  is  sitting  on  the 
other  side  of  the  family  circle.  It  is  a  fascinating  little  example 
of  his  genre  painting,  and  bears  a  striking  resemblance  to  the 
original. 

"Hahnemann's  favorite  spot  was  the  little  garden  back  of  the 
yard  which  was  paved  with  slabs  and  was  shut  in  by  a  grated 
door  surrounded  by  an  arbor.  The  garden  was  well  tended,  and 
walks  divided  the  small  beds,  which  were  encircled  with  box 
bush;  and  at  the  farthest  end  stood  the  lower  arbor,  which  was 
covered  with  thick  foliage  in  summer  and  entwined  with  ivy, 
and  was  the  place  where  the  previously  mentioned  bust  was 
modeled,  and  where  the  intellectual  master  gladly  and  assidu- 
ously toiled  during  the  greater  portion  of  the  year,  often  re- 
mained for  hours  in  the  morning,  received  his  patients,  ate  his 
breakfast,  etc. 

"At  the  present  time,  only  his  daughter  I^ouise,  the  widow  of 
Dr.  Mossdorf,  occupies  the  house  in  companionship  with  a  faith- 
ful servant.  One  of  the  most  active  and  energetic  of  the  sisters, 
Madame  Suss,  the  mother  of  a  Homoeopathic  physician  who 
settled  in  lyondon,  died  in  Coethen,  and  was  buried  in  the  city 
cemetery. 

"After  Dr.  Hahnemann  went  to  Paris,  there  remained,  besides 
Madame  Mossdorf,  an  elder  sister,  Charlotte,  who  helped  to  take 
care  of  the  small  household,  and  guarded  the  remembrance  of 
her  beloved  father  as  something  sacred,  until  she  died  in  the 
spring  of  1863,  after  a  short  but  severe  illness. 

"Hahnemann's  routine  of  daily  work  was  very  strictly  regu- 
lated. The  great  and  learned  man  arose  at  6  o'clock  in  summer 
.and  at  7  in  the  winter,  drank  a  few  cups  of  warm  milk,  lighted 
his  pipe,  and  then  went  to  promenade  in  his  garden.  So  far  as 
the  season  of  the  year  permitted  it  he  ate  some  fruit  about  10 
o'clock  in  the  forenoon.  He  went  to  dinner  at  12  o'clock,  and 
usually  ate  very  strong  beef  tea,  roasted  beef,  mutton,  or  venison 
of  every  kind,  roasted  larks,  chickens  or  doves,  and  similar  food. 
He  was  very  fond  of  roast  veal  and  pork,  and  a  dish  in  order  to 
be  to  his  taste  must  be  very  sweet.  He  did  not  wish  to  know 
of  any  vegetables  besides  new  beans,  cabbage  and  spinach,  and 
he  gladly  used  cake  instead  of  bread.  At  table  he  drank  some 
good  wine  when  he  had  guests;   but  his  daily  drink  was  sweet- 


438  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

ened  gose,  a  kind  of  mild  beer.  After  eating,  he  slept  an  hour 
on  the  sofa,  then  attended  to  his  patients  again  until  7  o'clock, 
at  which  time  he  had  supper,  which  in  winter  consisted  of  warm 
milk,  and  in  summer  of  gose  (small  beer)  and  bread. 

"After  supper  he  promenaded  for  awhile  in  his  garden  both 
in  summer  and  in  winter.  His  companion  in  these  recreative 
walks  was  usually  a  little  pet  dog,  which  also  kept  close  by  his 
side  when  he  sat  at  table. 

"After  the  walk  he  spent  an  hour  in  the  sitting-room,  and 
then  went  into  his  office,  where  he  wrote  at  his  books  until  11, 
12  or  I  o'clock,  or  busied  himself  with  other  work. 

"When  a  boy  Hahnemann  wore  a  queue,  short  trousers,  and 
shoes  with  buckles;  and  as  a  physican  he  always  wore  in  the 
house  a  dark  velvet  cap,  a  black  silk  necktie  and  vest,  a  cassi- 
mere  dressing  gown  and  long  trousers.  In  summer,  cotton 
stockings  and  light  wadded  slippers,  and  in  winter  woolen 
stockings  and  fur  boots.  When  on  the  street  he  would  be 
seen  with  a  round  hat  and  overcoat.  Only  on  holidays  did  he 
dress  in  frock  coat  and  long  trousers,  silk  stockings  and  shoes. 
In  winter  he  wore  a  beaver  hat,  fur  coat  and  black  sealskin 
boots.  People  very  seldom  saw  him  with  silk  pocket  handker- 
chief and  gloves. 

"He  burnt  in  his  room  only  a  tallow  light,  which  he  often 
made  use  of  to  light  his  pipe,  for  he  smoked  a  great  deal.  If  he 
had  befouled  his  pipe  and  laid  it  aside,  it  would  be  again  cleaned 
out  and  refilled.  He  was  really  interested  in  only  one  game, 
that  of  chess;  and  he  was  passionately  fond  of  this,  though,  for 
lack  of  time,  he  verj^  seldom  played. 

"  He  never  slept  in  a  room  warmed  by  artificial  means.  Plain- 
ness and  love  of  order  were  expressed  not  only  in  his  handwrit- 
ing, but  also  in  the  accounts  which  he  kept  as  a  physician.  He 
wrote  in  a  very  small  and  neat,  but  plain  hand,  upon  small-sized 
sheets,  was  very  choice  in  expression,  and  therefore  often  made 
corrections;  he  read  and  wrote  until  an  advanced  ago  without 
spectacles. 

"His  mental  energy  was  conspicuous,  even  in  the  common 
events  of  his  everyday  life. 

"When  traveling  in  Transylvania  he  encountered  a  lady  of 
high  rank  at  an  hotel;  the  landlady,  in  providing  dinner  for  her 


HABITS    OF    LIFE..  439 

guests,  neglected  the  fire,  and  in  a  short  time  the  whole  house 
was  in  a  blaze. 

"  Ever_vone  thought  of  his  own  safety,  no  one  attending  to  the 
lady,  whose  apartments  were  in  the  upper  story.  Hahnemann, 
thinking  of  her  safety,  rushed  through  the  midst  of  the  flames, 
returned  with  the  rescued  lady,  and  also  saved  her  heavy  trunk. 
Being  satisfied  of  her  safety,  he  immediately  entered  the  stiige 
and  drove  away. 

"  When  he  resided  in  the  country  at  Lobkowitz,  near  Dresden, 
a  dreadful  fire  broke  out.  Everyone  was  at  a  loss  what  to  do. 
'Will  you  follow  my  advice?'  enquired  Hahnemann,  of  those 
who  knew  him.  'Willingly,  willingly,'  they  replied.  He  now 
gave  instructions,  and,  although  a  father  of  four  children, 
encountered  all  risks;  the  fire  was  very  soon  extinguished."* 

Hahnemann  seems  to  have  thoroughly  understood  the  ingrati- 
tude of  patients  and  the  difficulty  of  getting  money  from  them 
after  the  cure  had  occurred.  He  gives  in  1826  the  following 
excellent  advice  to  his  friend  and  pupil,  Dr.  Ernst  Stapfif  "See 
that  you  get  paid  every  month,  and  do  not  trust  to  running 
accounts  to  be  paid  afterwards  by  an  ungrateful  world;  for  then 
you  will  be  cheated!  Accipe  dum  dolet.  During  many,  many 
years  I  have  never  found  one  who  has  shown  himself  grateful 
after  being  cured.  But  when  they  have  paid  you  every  month, 
they  cannot  demand  repayment;  but  we  have  got  it,  and  have 
done  them  no  harm.  Their  ingratitude  can  then  do  us  no  harm. 
I  beg  you  to  let  Gross,  also,  read  this." 

"Only  in  discussions  did  he  indulge  in  strong  and  vigorous 
language;  and  this  was  done  that  the  truth  might  have  its  whole 
weight  of  effect. 

"  While  in  L,eipsic  he  had  already  planned  a  register  of  symp- 
toms, that  had  soon  grown  to  two  folio  volumes.  They  subse- 
quently appeared  unsatisfactory  to  him  and  he  rewrote  them  in 
a  new  order  and  with  improvements.  He  prepared  at  Coethen 
two  new  folio  volumes  and  did  it  with  the  most  scrupulous 
exactness.  Unfortunately  these,  which  would  have  been  an 
invaluable  possession  for  science,  were  taken  along  with  him  to 
Paris,   and   cannot  be  obtained,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that 

*  Fischer.     Traus.  of  "  Biographisches  Denkmal,"  p.  92. 
-\  Horn.  World,  Vol.  xxiv.,  p.  362. 


440  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

Hahnemann  had  bequeathed  them  to  his  j'oungest  daughter, 
Madame  Mossdorf,  as  her  property,  and  had  explicitly  directed 
that  these  two  folio  volumes  should  be  returned  to  the  rightful 
possessor  after  his  death.  Madame  Melanie  Hahnemann  says 
that  said  volumes  were  burnt  up  in  the  Paris  revolution. 

''  But  this  assertion  is  very  improbable,  for  the  reason  that  she 
{Madame)  had  fled  to  Munich,  to  her  son-in-law,  five  weeks 
before  the  Paris  insurrection,  and  she  doubtless  took  the  precious 
legacy  with  her  to  her  son-in-law,  who  was  a  Homoeopathic 
physician  there." 

Dr.  Schweikert,  director  of  the  Homoeopathic  hospital  at 
I^eipsic,  asked  him  to  present  these  volumes  to  that  institution. 
He  refused,  saying:  "  I  gave  them  to  my  youngest  daughter,  I 
cannot  retract  my  promise." 

"  Hahnemann  inherited  from  his  parents  the  spirit  of  be- 
nevolence, and  exercised  it  during  his  whole  life.  In  his  opin- 
ion it  was  sufiicient  to  live  for  science,  duty  and  the  healing  of 
his  fellow- men. 

"  Hence  he  hastened  to  make  his  discoveries  common  property; 
and  he  did  not  wish  to  consider  his  laboriously  prepared  reme- 
dies as  secrets  or  to  sell  them  at  a  high  price.  He  preferred  to 
be  poor  with  honor  than  to  gain  wealth  through  practice.  To 
be  sure  he  made  the  rich  pay  him  well  for  advice  and  services, 
but  only  with  the  view  not  only  of  healing  the  poor  gratuitously, 
but  also  with  assisting  them  with  money  besides. 

"  His  knowledge  was  marvellous.  He  was  at  home  in  all 
sciences,  even  in  those  which  have  no  connection  with  medicine. 
Persons  could  get  information  from  him  about  all  matters,  for 
though  he  had  not  pursued  any  one  branch  of  science  with 
special  attention  yet  he  had  read  extensively  upon  all  of  them. 
'The  man  who  is  truly  cultured,'  he  often  said,  '  must  be  well 
versed  in  all  positive  knowledge.  He  even  should  well  under- 
stand astronomy.'  A  chart  of  the  planetary  system  hung  in  his 
library,  and  he  very  gladly  conversed  about  astronomical  matters 
with  his  nephew,  the  Court  Chancellor  Schwabe,  who  had  an  as- 
tronomical observatory  in  his  yard.  He  was  a  clever  meteorologist 
and  knew  something  of  the  science  of  the  weather.  But  for  this 
knowledge  he  was  indebted  to  the  hygrometer,  the  barometer 
and  thermometer,  upon  which  he  was  wont  to  cast  his  eye  both 
in  the   house  and   in   the   garden.     He  was  no  less  learned  in 


RELATIONS    TO    HIS    PATIKNTS.  44I 

g-eograph}^  and,  therefore,  in  his  library,  which  embraced  scien- 
tific works  of  all  kinds,  there  was  an  ample  collection  of  maps. 
"Magnetism  and  mesmerism,  both  intimately  connected  with 
the  study  of  medicine,  were  making  progress.  Hahnemann  paid 
special  attention  to  them,  and  he  occasionally  applied  both,  in 
attacks  of  sickness,  with  successful  results.  Until  extreme  old 
age  Hahnemann  spent  a  great  portion  of  his  leisure  time  in 
reading." 


CHAPTER  IvXXXI. 

DELATIONS   TO    HIS    PATIENTS — MODE    OP   LIPE — HIS    RELIGIOUS 
VIEWS — VIGOR    IN    OI.D    AGE. 

.  "  Hahnemann's  many  translations  prove  that  he  was  a  master 
in  linguistics,  or  the  science  of  new  languages.  But  this  fond- 
ness did  not  detract  from  his  love  for  the  old  philology;  he  was 
a  complete  philologist.  He  even  understood  somewhat  of  Chal- 
daic  works.  This  explains  to  a  great  extent  his  intimate  rela- 
tionship with  Prof.  Adam  Beyer.  The  two  would  often  meet  in 
the  evening  and  converse  most  animatedly  about  the  syntactical 
and  higher  critical  subjects  of  L,atin  and  Greek;  and  the  Leipsic 
professor  listened  with  special  attention  to  the  critical  acumen  of 
liis  medical  friend  in  many  a  philological  controversy.  '  Ofl&cia 
Ciceronis,'  edited  by  Beyer,  had  an  honorable  place  in  his  study.* 
",His  social  relations  with  his  patients  were  most  exemplary, 
for  as  a  physician  he  was  extremely  humane  and  compassionate 
towards  those  seeking  help,  and  was  always  ready  and  willing 
to  make  any  sacrifice  of  time  and  effort.  He  kept  an  exact 
register  concerning  his  patients,  punctually  recorded  therein  with 
his  own  hand  the  symptoms  of  their  diseases,  never  put  their 
•own  words  into  their  mouths  when  examining  them  with  refer- 
ence to  their  ailments,  but  earnestly  entreated  each  one  to 
describe  the  symptoms.  He  would  ask  where  the  patient  resided; 
in  what  relations  of  life  he  lived;  how  he  managed  his  house- 

*  This  same  Adam  Beyer  designed  to  render  Hahnemann's  books  into 
classical  Latin,  but  he  unfortunately  died  before  he  could  accomplish  this 
task. 


442  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

hold;  how  his  kitchen  was  arranged;  how,  and  how  much  he 
worked;  how  he  disposed  of  his  time,  etc.  The  numberless  let- 
ters from  his  patients,  after  being  entered  in  a  journal,  were 
immediately  pasted  in  covers,  all  of  which  bore  upon  labels  the 
number,  year  and  date.  All  these  covers  and  numberless  letters, 
all  his  journals  and  name  registers,  were  taken  with  him  to  Paris. 

"  He  earned  very  large  sums  every  year  through  his  extensive 
practice  in  the  Capital  of  France.  Unfortunately,  he  could  no- 
longer  derive  advantage  from  this  income  as  respected  his  own 
person.  He  saw  himself  compelled,  by  his  change  of  residence, 
to  lead  habits  of  life  to  which  he  was  wholly  unaccustomed  and 
which  were  quite  the  reverse  to  those  which  have  been  previously 
described.  He  had  to  ride  in  a  carriage  very  often,  dared  smoke 
but  little  tobacco,  was  necessitated  to  change  his  accustomed 
food  and  drinks  for  others,  to  go  to  bed  much  later  than  he  had 
previously  done,  and  to  lie  in  bed  very  often  until  ten  in  the  fore- 
noon, so  that  he  was  compelled  to  dine  and  sup  much  later.  The 
evening  visit  to  the  conservatoire,  the  Italian  opera  or  the 
theatre  was  wholly  against  his  custom  and  his  own  choice.  We 
have  the  following  memorandum  in  Hahnemann's  own  hand- 
writing. He  ordered  his  patients  to  observe  a  strict  diet  on 
account  of  the  small  doses  and  the  great  strength  of  the  medi- 
cine. 'Avoid,'  he  said,  'spices,  tubers  and  cabbage,  acids,  tea 
and  coffee,  spirituous  and  similar  drinks.'  He  forbade  all  '  fum- 
igation, perfumery,  hair  pomades,  tooth  powders  and  tinctures, 
mineral  baths,  warm  footbaths,  salves,  plasters,  poultices,  blister- 
ing plasters,  hairbands,  leeches  and  cupping  glasses.'  He  showed 
himself  no  less  hostile  to  all  '  bleeding,  blistering  with  Spanish 
flies,  burning,  cutting,  and  all  sudorifics,  emetics  and  purga- 
tives.' On  the  other  hand,  he  advised  'plain  and  substantial 
food,  pure  beer,  milk,  buttermilk,  cocoa,  beef  and  mutton  tea  or 
soup,  drinks  of  cold  water,  a  walk  or  drive  one  or  more  hours 
daily,  cleanliness  and  neatness,  regularity  in  meals  and  hours  of 
sleep,  a  moral  life  and  a  firm  trust  in  God.' 

"Although  Hahnemann  toiled  from  early  morning  until  late 
at  night  in  Coethen,  yet  he  could  not  attend  to  all  his  practice 
himself,  and  employed  Dr.  lychmann  as  an  assistant.  He  es- 
teemed this  assistant  more  and  more  highly  every  year  because 
the  latter  had  the  rare  frankness  to  oppose  his  employer  so  often. 
Hahnemann  well  knew  that  we  arrive  at  the  truth  by  a  due  esti- 
mation of  its  contradiction." 


RELIGIOUS   VIEWS.  443 

Dudgeon  says:  "The  portraits  of  Hahnemann  all  represent 
him  with  his  hair  elaborately  curled.  It  would  seem  that  he 
was  in  the  habit  of  getting  it  curled  as  early  as  18 19.  Mr. 
Cameron,  who  was  much  with  Hahnemann  during  his  residence 
in  Paris,  tells  me  that  if  he  went  to  see  him  early  in  the  morn- 
ing, which  he  frequently  did,  he  always  found  him  with  his  hair 
up  in  curl  papers."* 

In  religion  Hahnemann  was  brought  up  a  Lutheran.  Hering 
said  that  it  was  L,essing's  controversy  with  Gotze  that  formed 
Hahnemann's  religious  views  for  life.  He  was  a  Deist,  every- 
where in  his  writings  may  be  found  expressions  indicating  that 
he,  in  all  matters,  recognized  God  as  the  Supreme  One,  and  that 
he  viewed  life  as  a  vast  field  in  which  to  do  good  according  to 
the  permission  and  wisdom  of  that  God. 

In  a  letter  to  his  friend  Stapf,  dated  April  15,  1827,  he  says:t 
"I  acknowledge  with  sincere  thankfulness  the  infinite  mercy  of 
the  one  great  Giver  of  all  good  for  having  kept  me  hitherto  in 
strength  and  cheerful  spirits  amidst  all  the  assaults  of  my 
enemies;  and  I  have  no  other  wish  here  below  than  to  lay  before 
the  world  in  a  worthy  manner  the  good  which  the  Supreme  Be- 
ing permitted  me  to  discover,  I  may  say  revealed  to  me,  for  the 
alleviation  of  the  sufferings  of  mankind.  Then  I  am  willing  to 
depart  this  life." 

Hahnemann  retained  his  vigor  until  the  time  of  his  death. 
Dr.  Richard  Hughes,  in  a  lecture  before  the  London  School  of 
Homoeopathy  in  1877,  said  of  Hahnemann:  ''To  make  the 
Hahnemann  of  1830-43  our  guide  is,  I  think,  to  commit  our- 
selves to  his  senility."  This  called  forth  from  Dr.  H.  V. 
Malan  the  following  letter:^  "  I  have  looked  over  your  lecture 
at  the  opening  of  the  London  School  of  Homoeopathy,  and,  as  a 
pupil  of  Hahnemann,  the  last  living  I  believe,  and  having  spent 
about  a  year  and  a  half  in  1841  and  1842  with  him,  and  under 
his  constant  teaching  in  Paris,  I  wish  to  state  that  his  intel- 
lectual powers  there  were  not  those  of  '  senility;'  far  from  it!  I 
have  seen  him  make  many  remarkable  cures,  and  heard  him 
teach  and  speak  with  wonderful  accuracy,  learning  and  judg- 
ment, adorned  with  that  deep  modesty  which  was  his  remarkable 
attribute. 

"^'Hom.  World,  Vol.  xxvi.,  p.  449. 
■\ Horn.  World,  Vol.  xxiv.,  p.  365. 
J" The  OrganoQ,"  Vol.  i.,  p.  284. 


444  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

"  He  never  prescribed  nor  paid  any  visits  to  the  patient's  bed- 
side without  taking  notes  of  the  case  and  consulting  the  Materia 
Medica;  he  never  alternated  medicines,  no  more  than  he  ever 
mixed  two  together. 

"I  often  saw  him  use  very  high  dilutions,  and  one  of  his  most 
remarkable  cures  was  with  one  single  dose  of  a  very  high  one 
(Jenichen's,  I  believe),  and  I  have  frequently  heard  him  say  that 
the  thirtieth  was  not  to  be  fixed  as  the  limit. 

"As  to  his  teaching,  I  never  heard  any  equal  to  it;  and  having 
endeavored  to  follow  it,  as  far  as  able,  I  have  often  expressed 
the  thought  that  when  we  can  do  as  well  as  he  did,  it  will  be 
time  enough  for  us  to  try  to  do  better.  I  may  now  sincerely  add 
that  in  my  thirty-five  years'  experience  I  have  never  yet  done — 
or  seen  any  one  doing — as  well  as  he  did,  nor  have  I  had  one 
occasion  to  find  his  teachings  incorrect, 

"  Pray  excuse  these  few  words  from  one  of  his  pupils, 

"  H.  V.  Malan." 

'' Mo7itreux,  December  i8^  1^77 •'' 

Did  Hahnemann  believe  in  hydropathy?  Writing  to  Dr. 
Schreeter,  August  13,  1840,  he  says:*  "In  all  ages  there  have 
been  some  excessive  panegyrists  of  cold  water.  The  reasons  why 
Priesnitz  is  so  successful  with  gluttons  and  drunkards  of  many 
years'  standing,  and  with  patients  ruined  by  effeminate  habits, 
are  not  sufficiently  attended  to  by  the  world  and  the  medical  pro- 
fession; and  the  excellence  of  his  scanty  diet,  his  prohibition  of 
coffee,  tea,  spices,  his  suitable  forced  walking  in  the  open  air  not 
considered.  To  the  cold  water  alone  all  the  benefit  obtained  is 
attributed — thus  are  men  led  astray  from  want  of  judgment.  Is 
it  not  plain  that  these  old  sinners  who  have  originally  good  con- 
stitutions, but  who  are  prevented  from  recovering  by  their  balls, 
dissipations  and  other  vices,  are  there  compelled  to  live  consist- 
ently with  nature  to  their  own  advantage?  Is  this  not  the  chief 
instrument  of  their  restoration?  And  how  many  suffering  from 
chronic  disease,  but  not  owing  their  complaints  to  an  improper 
mode  of  living,  has  not  Priesnitz  ruined  by  the  excessive  use  of 
cold  water,  whereby  the}^  have  been  deprived  of  their  sight  or 
hearing?  A  good,  especially  a  Homoeopathic  physician,  always 
knows  when  and  in  what  cases  to  emploj^  with  advantage  cold 

*Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  vi.,  p.  416.  Stapf 's  Archiv.,  Vol.  xxiii.,  pt.  3,  p. 
107. 


THE   POSOLOGY    OF   HAHNEMANN.  445 

water,  without  carrying  it  too  far,  and  without  doing  any  harm 
with  it.  Everything  in  its  proper  place!  Cold  water  is  merely 
a  physical  accessory  means  for  the  perfect  establishment  of 
patients  cured  by  the  appropriate  medicinal  agents." 


CHAPTER  LXXXII. 

THE    POSOLOGY  OF    HAHNEMANN.* 

Previous  to  1796,  the  period  at  which  Hahnemann  first  gave 
to  the  world  the  discovery  of  the  new  law  of  healing,  he  used 
the  ordinary  remedies  of  the  times,  but  even  then,  as  we  find  by 
his  writing  he  gave  simple  prescriptions.  The  awkward  and 
often  chemically  ridiculous  polypharmacy  was  objectionable  to 
his  fine  and  acutely  trained  understanding. 

In  1789,  in  the  "Treatise  on  Venereal  Diseases,"  he  says:  "I 
have  sometimes  not  had  occasion  to  use  more  than  one  grain  of 
soluble  Mercury  in  all  in  order  to  cure  moderate  idiopathic  ven- 
ereal symptoms  and  commencing  syphilis;  yet  I  have  met  with 
cases  in  which  sixty  grains  were  necessary."  For  the  time  this 
was  very  minute  dosage.  It  was  the  habit  to  give  massive  and 
repeated  doses  of  Mercury  until  its  effects  were  to  be  markedly 
seen  on  the  system  in  salivation,  swollen  gums,  glandular  en- 
largements, bone  pains,  etc.  Further  on  in  this  treatise  he 
says: 

"Not  more  than  eight  grains  were  required  to  eradicate  a 
moderately  severe  syphilis,  for  a  severe  case  twelve  grains." 

In  Section  626:  "I  increased  the  quantity  of  the  soluble 
Mercury  very  gradually  from  one  fourth  to  one-third,  one-half, 
three  fourths,  one,  one  and  one  fourth  grains,  so  that  I  could 
leave  it  off  on  the  slightest  appearance  of  salivation." 

In  1793  we  find  him  recommending  his  patient,  the  tailor,  to 
apply  petroleum  to  chilblains  upon  the  fingers. f 

*Data  for  this  chapter  is  taken  from  Dr.  Francis  Black,  on  Posology, 
Brit.  Jour.  Hotn.,  Vol.  xxix.,  p.  572;  Hahnemann's  Dosage,  Dr.  R. 
Hughes,  Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  xxxvi.,  p.  114;  Hahnemann's  Doses,  Dr. 
Roth,  Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  xxx.,  p.  82;  Griesselich  on  Medicinal  Doses, 
Quar.  Jour.  Horn.,  Boston,  1849,  Vol.  i.,  p.  165;  Dudgeon's  "Lectures  on 
Homoeopathy,"  Lecture  xiv;  Hahnemann's  writings;  Fincke,  on  High 
Potencies. 

■\Monthly  Horn.  Review,  Vol.  xxxi.,  p.  549. 


446  LIFE   OF    HAHNEMANN. 

The  essay  on  the  "Curative  Power  of  Drugs"  was  the  first 
published  on  the  Homoeopathic  principle.  In  this  he  speaks  of 
giving  for  dysentery  Arnica  root  in  powder.  "I  had  to  in- 
crease the  dose  daily,  more  often  than  is  necessary  with  any 
other  powerful  medicine.  A  child  of  four  years  of  age  got  at 
first  four  grains  daily,  then  seven,  eight  and  nine  grains.  Chil- 
dren of  six  or  seven  years  of  age  could  at  first  only  bear  six  grains, 
afterwards  twelve  and  fourteen  grains  were  requisite.  A  child 
three-quarters  of  a  year  old,  which  had  previously  taken  nothing, 
could  at  first  bear  but  two  grains  (mixed  with  warm  water)  in 
an  enema;  latterly  six  grains  were  necessary," 

He  says  that  he  took  one  grain  of  extract  of  ^t/ucsa  cynapimn 
when  distracted  and  mentally  tired  from  literary  work. 

An  infusion  of  ten  grains  oi  Ledum  palustre  was  given  to  a 
child  six  years  old. 

Arsenic  in  one-sixth  to  one-tenth  of  a  grain  doses  was  recom- 
mended in  periodical  headache. 

The  landlord  of  a  country  inn  had  an  asthmatic  affection  with 
loss  of  breath,  constriction  of  the  chest,  suffocative  attacks  with 
suicidal  thoughts:  "The  mania  resembling  that  peculiar  to 
Veratriun,  the  firm  fibre  of  the  patient,  etc.,  induced  me  to  pre- 
scribe three  grains  of  it  every  morning,  which  he  continued  for 
four  weeks,  with  the  gradual  cessation  of  his  sufferings.  His 
malady  had  lasted  four  years  or  more." 

A  woman  of  thirt5'-five  with  delirium  and  convulsions,  after 
parturition,  took  one-half  grain  of  Verabiim  night  and  morning 
and  was  cured. 

As  early  as  1797,  in  Hufelartd's  Joicrnal,  he  says:*  "May  I 
confess  it  that  for  several  years  since  I  never  administered  any- 
thing else  but  one  single  remedy  at  a  time  and  at  once,  and  that 
I  never  have  repeated  it  until  the  action  of  the  former  dose  had 
expired?  May  I  confess  that  I  was  successful  in  this  manner, 
and  that  I  have  cured  to  the  satisfaction  of  my  patients,  and  that 
I  have  seen  things  which  I  could  not  have  seen  otherwise." 

In  1797  he  cured  a  case  of  colicodynia  with  a  four-grain 
powder  of  Veratrum  album  daily;  the  patient  having  taken  two 
in  one  day,  suffered  from  medicinal  aggravation.  For  asthma 
he  gave  five-grain  doses  of  Ipecac;  four  grains,  twice  daily,  of 
Nux  vomica. 

*  "  L,esser  Writings,"  New  York,  p.  321.  "  Fincke,  on  High  Potencies," 
p.  106. 


THE    POSOI.OGY   OP   HAHNEMANN.  447 

This  same  year  of  1797  he  mentions  giving  a  girl  of  five  years, 
who  was  poisoned  bj^  Camp/io?;  four-drop  doses  of  tincture  of 
Opium  until  she  had  probably  taken  two  grains  of  Opium.  She 
recovered  from  the  Camphor  poisoning  under  this  treatment. 

For  the  leucophlegmatic  cachexias  of  children  he  says  that 
twelve  grains  oi  Arnica  root  can  be  taken  with  impunity. 

In  poisoning  by  Cocculics  he  gave  fifteen  grains  of  Camphor. 

In  an  article  on  continued  and  remittent  fevers,  published  in 
1798,  he  says:  "St.  Ignatius'  bean  produced  effects  that  were 
truly  surprising.  I  gave  it  in  large  doses  every  twelve  hours; 
to  children  from  nine  months  to  three  years  of  age,  from  one- 
half  to  two-thirds  of  a  grain;  to  those  between  four  and  six 
years,  from  one  grain  to  one  and  one-half  grains;  to  those 
between  seven  and  twelve  years,  from  two  to  three  grains."  To 
adults  he  gave  eight- grain  doses.  He  says:  "I  accordingly 
gave  Opium  in  the  morning  before  the  fit  in  the  dose  of  one-fifth 
of  a  grain  to  an  infant  of  five  years,  three-tenths  of  a  grain  to 
one  of  seven  and  another  of  eight  years,  seven- twentieths  to  one 
often  years.     I  took  myself  half  a  grain." 

He  gave  Camphor  in  doses  of  fifteen  to  twenty  grains  daily, 
increasing  them  to  doses  of  thirty  and  forty  grains.  He  gave  a 
child  of  twelve  fifteen  grains  a  day  for  a  fortnight.  Ledum  he 
gave  in  doses  of  six  or  seven  grains  three  times  a  day. 

Cinchona  bark  was  given  in  drachm  and  drachm  and  a-half 
doses. 

Thus  it  may  be  seen  that  even  after  he  had  made  and  pub- 
lished his  experiments  with  medicines  he  continued  to  use 
appreciable  doses.  But  he  used  single  remedies,  and  in  the 
Bssay  on  the  Curative  Power  of  Drugs  he  says,  in  speaking  of 
the  compound  prescriptions  to  be  found  in  the  books  of  the  old 
physicians: 

"To  me  the  strangest  circumstance  connected  with  these 
speculations  upon  the  virtues  of  single  drugs  is,  that  in  the  days 
of  these  men,  the  habit  that  still  obtains  in  medicine,  of  joining 
together  several  different  medicines  in  one  prescription,  was 
carried  to  such  an  extent  that  I  defy  CEdipus  himself  to  tell 
what  was  the  exact  action  of  a  single  ingredient  of  the  hotch 
potch;  the  prescription  of  a  single  remedy  at  a  time  was  in  those 
days  almost  rarer  than  it  is  now-a-days.     How  was  it  possible  in 


448  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

such  a  complicated  practice  to  distinguish  the  powers  of  indi- 
vidual medicines?" 

Now  comes,  in  1799,  the  treatment  of  the  epidemic  of  scarlet 
fever,  the  discovery  of  Belladonna,  and  the  sudden  introduction 
of  infinitesimal  doses. 

The  paper  upon  the  subject  was  not  published  until  1801,  but 
he  commenced  this  new  treatment  during  the  summer  of  1799. 

He  recommends  a  paper  moistened  with  tincture  of  Opium  to 
be  laid  on  the  epigastrium  of  the  child  until  it  dries,  in  cases  of 
convulsions.  For  internal  use  the  Opium  is  prepared  as  follows: 
"The  tincture  is  formed  by  adding  one  part  of  crude  Opiicfn^ 
finely  powdered,  to  twenty  parts  oi  crnde  Alcohol,  letting  it  stand 
a  week  in  a  cool  place,  shaking  it  occasionally.  For  internal 
use  I  take  a  drop  of  this  tincture  and  mix  it  intimately  with  five 
hundred  drops  of  diluted  Alcohol,  shaking  the  whole  well.  Of 
this  diluted  tincture  of  Opium  (which  contains  in  every  drop  one 
five-millionth  part  of  a  grain  of  Opium)  one  drop  given  internally 
was  amply  sufiicient  in  the  case  of  a  child  four  years  of  age,  and 
two  drops  in  that  of  a  child  of  ten  years  to  remove  the  above 
state.  For  younger  children  I  mixed  one  drop  of  this  with  ten 
teaspoonfuls  of  water  and  gave  them  according  to  their  age,  one^ 
two  or  more  teaspoonfuls."  He  repeated  the  doses  but  seldom; 
every  four  or  eight  hours,  or  sometimes  but  twice  during  the 
entire  fever.   L,arger  doses,  he  says,  cause  medicinal  aggravations. 

For  another  stage  of  the  scarlatina  he  says  :  "I  gave,  accord- 
ing to  the  age  of  the  child.  Ipecacuanha,  either  in  substance  in 
the  dose  of  a  tenth  to  half  a  grain  in  fine  powder;  or  I  employed 
the  tincture,  prepared  by  digesting  in  the  cold  for  some  days,  one 
part  of  the  powder  with  twenty  parts  of  alcohol;  of  this  one 
drop  was  mixed  with  one  hundred  drops  of  weak  alcohol,  and  to 
the  youngest  children  a  drop  of  this  last  was  given,  but  to  the 
oldest  ones  ten  drops  were  given  as  a  dose." 

Of  Belladonna  he  gave  a  girl  of  ten  years,  who  was  sickening 
with  scarlatina,  a  dose  the  one  four  hundred  and  thirty-two 
thousandth  part  of  a  grain  of  the  extract,  which  he  says  is, 
according  to  later  experience,  rather  too  large  a  dose. 

For  a  prophylactic  Hahnemann  says:  "We  dissolve  a  grain 
of  this  powder  prepared  from  well-preserved  Belladonna  extract, 
evaporated  at  an  ordinary  temperature,  in  one  hundred  drops  of 
common  distilled  water,  by  rubbing  it  up  in  a  small  mortar;  we 


THE    POSOIvOGY    OF    HAHNEMANN.  449 

pour  the  thick  solution  into  a  one-ounce  bottle,  and  rinse  the 
mortar  and  the  pestle  with  three  hundred  parts  of  diluted  alcohol 
(five  parts  of  water  to  one  of  spirit),  and  we  then  add  this  to 
the  solution  and  render  the  union  perfect  by  diligently  shaking 
the  liquid.  We  label  the  bottle  strong  solution  of  Belladonna. 
One  drop  of  this  is  intimately  mixed  with  three  hundred  drops 
of  diluted  alcohol  by  shaking  it  for  a  minute,  and  this  is  marked 
mediuin  sohitioyi  of  Belladonna.  Of  this  second  mixture  one  drop 
is  mixed  with  two  hundred  drops  of  the  diluted  alcohol,  by 
shaking  for  a  minute,  and  marked  weak  solution  of  Belladonna; 
and  this  is  our  prophylactic  remedy  for  scarlet  fever,  each  drop 
of  which  contains  the  twenty- four  millionth  part  of  a  grain  of 
the  dry  Bellado7ina  juice. 

"Of  this  weak  solution  of  Belladonna  we  give  to  those  not 
affected  with  scarlet  fever,  with  the  intention  to  make  them  zm- 
infectable  by  the  disease — to  a  child  one  year  old  two  drops;  to- 
a  younger  child  one  drop;  to  one  two  years  old,  three;  to  one 
three  years  old,  four;  to  a  child  four  years  old,  according  to  the 
strength  of  his  constitution,  five  to  six;  to  a  five  year  old  child^ 
from  six  to  seven;  to  a  six  year  old  child,  from  seven  to  eight; 
to  a  seven  year  old  child,  from  nine  to  ten;  to  an  eight  year  old 
child,  from  eleven  to  thirteen;  to  a  nine  year  old  child,  from 
fourteen  to  sixteen  drops;  and  with  each  successive  year,  up  to 
the  twentieth,  two  drops  more  (from  the  twentieth  to  thirtieth, 
not  above  forty  drops),  a  dose  every  seventy-two  hours,  well 
stirred  with  a  teaspoon  for  a  minute  in  any  kind  of  drink,  as 
long  as  the  epidemic  lasts,  and  four  to  five  weeks  thereafter. 

"Half  this  dose  given  every  three  hours  will  often  suppress 
the  fever  in  its  first  germ." 

Of  the  tincture  of  Chamomilla,  for  the  after  effects  of  the  dis- 
ease, a  grain  was  to  be  dissolved  in  five  hundred  drops  of  water 
and  mixed  intimately  with  five  hundred  drops  of  alcohol.  Of 
this  solution  one  drop  was  mixed  with  eight  hundred  drops  of 
diluted  alcohol,  and  of  this  last  diluted  solution  one  drop  (800,- 
000th  part  of  a  grain  of  the  inspissated  juice)  was  given  every  day 
to  a  child  a  few  years  old,  two  drops  to  one  of  ten  years  of  age. 

B)^  its  use  all  tendency  to  ulceration  ot  the  skin  was  removed, 
and  also  the  suffocating  cough. 

Hufeland  having  challenged  Hahnemann  to  defend  publicly 
these  remarkable  statements,  he  replied  in  Hufeland' s  fournal: 


450  LIFE   OF   HAHNEMANN. 

"You  ask  me  what  effect  can  the  100,000th  part  of  a  grain  of 
Belladon7ia  have  ?  The  word  can  is  repugnant  to  me  and  apt  to 
lead  to  misconception."  He  further  says,  that  while  a  hard,  dry- 
pill  of  extract  of  Belladonna  produces  on  a  robust,  perfectly 
healthy  countryman  no  effect,  yet  he  will  be  affected  with  the 
most  violent  and  dangerous  symptoms  from  one  grain  of  the  ex- 
tract of  Belladonna,  if  this  grain  be  dissolved  thoroughly  in  two 
pounds  of  water  by  rubbing,  the  mixture  being  made  very  inti- 
mate by  shaking  the  fluid  in  a  bottle  for  five  minutes,  and  if  he 
be  made  to  take  it  by  spoonfuls  within  six  or  eight  hours." 

"These  two  pounds  will  contain  about  ten  thousand  drops.  If 
one  of  these  drops  be  mixed  with  two  thousand  drops  (six 
ounces)  of  water,  mixed  with  a  little  alcohol,  by  being  vigor- 
ously shaken,  one  teaspoonful  of  this  mixture,  given  every  two 
hours,  will  produce  not  much  less  violent  symptoms  in  a  strong 
man  if  he  is  ill.  Such  a  dose  contains  the  millionth  part  of  a 
grain.  A  few  teaspoonfuls  of  this  mixture  will,  I  assert,  bring 
him  to  the  brink  of  the  grave  if  he  was  previously  regularly  ill, 
and  if  his  disease  was  of  such  a  description  as  Belladonna  is  suit- 
able for." 

Hahnemann  gives  no  reasons  for  his  sudden  change  from  ap- 
preciable doses  in  179S  to  comparatively  minute  doses   in   1799. 

Dudgeon  says,  "that  it  was  about  this  time  that  the  persecu- 
tions of  the  apothecaries  began,  and  it  was  probably  a  desire  to 
evade  their  harassing  annoyance  that  led  Hahnemann  to  try,  if 
on  diminishing  the  dose  to  such  an  extent  that  it  was  beyond 
the  ken  of  chemical  or  other  research,  the  medicine  still  pos- 
sessed the  power  of  influencing  the  organism." 

Undoubtedly  he  made  experiments  regarding  this  matter.  In 
the  answer  to  Hufeland  he  mentions  the  greater  action  of  drugs 
when  diffused  in  particles.  As  he,  by  experiments,  discovered 
that  medicines  acted  in  minute  doses  even  better  than  when  ad- 
ministered in  a  crude  form,  he  probably  continued  to  reduce  the 
size  of  the  dose.  He  has  many  times  said  that  it  was  his  aim  to 
cure  as  easily  and  pleasantly  as  possible.  And  he  wished  to  give 
no  more  medicine  than  was  absolutely  necessary  to  complete  the 
cure. 

Again,  in  1801,  he  writes:  "I  removed  several  paralyses  by 
the  use,  during  several  weeks,  of  a  very  rarified  Belladonna  solu- 
tion, where  the  whole  cure  did  not  require  a  full  one  hundred 


PROSOLOGY   CONTINUED.  45 1 

thousandth  part  of  a  grain  of  dried  Bellado7ina  juice,  and  some 
periodical  nervous  diseases,  dispositions  to  furuncles,  etc.,  re- 
quired not  quite  one-millionth  part  for  the  whole  cure."* 


CHAPTER  I.XXXIII. 

POSOLOGY   CONTINUKD. 

The  next  that  Hahnemann  says  on  the  dose  is  in  the  "Medi- 
•cine  of  Experience,"  published  in  1805,  and  in  which  he  first  an- 
nounces the  Homoeopathic  law.  He  says  that  if  the  remedy 
-selected  be  the  right  one  it  will  act  in  incredibly  small  doses. 
And  again,  if  a  small  dose  of  diluted  tincture  of  Opium  is  capa- 
ble of  removing  sleepiness,  the  hundredth  or  even  the  thousandth 
part  of  the  dose  sufl&ces  as  well. 

In  a  paper  published  in  1808  he  says  that  in  certain  bilious 
•conditions  "a  single  drop  of  the  tincture  of  Arnica  root  will  often 
remove,  in  the  course  of  a  couple  of  hours,  all  the  fever,  all  the 
bilious  taste,  all  the  tormina." 

In  another  article  in  the  same  year,  for  a  fever  then  prevailing 
in  Germany,  he  recommends  Nux  vomica  in  doses  of  the  trill- 
ionth  of  a  grain;  Arse^iicum  in  doses  of  a  sextillionth.  This 
would  be  in  the  ninth  and  eighteenth  dilutions. 

In  the  first  edition  of  the  "Organon,"  published  in  1810,  he 
■still  recommends  the  smallest  possible  dose.  He  says:  "The 
■smallest  doses  are  equal  to  the  disease."  And  again:  "The 
•dose  must  therefore  be  reduced  to  the  smallest  point  capable 
of  causing  an  aggravation  of  the  symptoms,  however  slight; 
such  is  the  standard  of  measurement  and  incontrovertible  axiom 
of  experience." 

He  does  not  mention  the  dynamization  theory.  The  dose  must 
be  diminished  to  avoid  aggravation.  He  uses  the  terms  diminu- 
tion, subdivision  and  attenuation.  He  does  not  give  the  limit  of 
his  method  of  dilution.  He  says,  however,  that  a  dose  divided 
and  taken  at  intervals  will  act  better  than  if  taken  at  once,  and 
that  the  power  of  the  medicine  is  increased  by  being  intimately 
mixed  with  a  larger  amount  of  fluid. 

*  Fincke,  on  High  Potencies,  p.  108. 


452  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

In  the  "Spirit  of  the  Homceopathic  Doctrine,"  published  in' 
1813,  he  says:  "The  spiritual  power  of  medicine  does  not  ac- 
complish its  object  by  means  of  quantity,  but  by  quality  or 
dynamic  firmness." 

In  the  essay  on  hospital  or  typhus  fever,  in  18 14,  he  rec- 
ommends Bryo7iia  and  Rhus  tox,  each  in  the  twelfth  dilution; 
not  by  the  centesimal  scale,  but  in  proportion  ot  one  drop  to  six 
drachms — equal  to  the  fifteenth  or  sixteenth  centesimal  dilution. 
A  single  drop  of  each  of  these  medicines  is  to  be  given  for  the 
dose.  Neither  must  be  used  in  a  lower  dilution  nor  in  a  larger 
dose.  He  gives  sweet  spirits  of  Nitre,  one  drop  to  an  ounce  of 
water,  in  teaspoonfuls,  the  whole  to  be  taken  within  twenty-four 
hours. 

In  18 15  Hahnemann  prescribed  for  a  washerwoman  a  drop  of 
the  pure  juice  of  the  ^rK^;zz^  root.  This  appears  in  one  of  his 
published  cases.  The  same  year  he  gave  for  dyspepsia,  "half  a 
drop  of  the  quadrillionth  of  a  strong  drop  o^  Pulsatilla.'" ^^- 

In  a  letter  to  Stapf,  written  in  18 14,  he  says:  "  With  this  you; 
will  receive  my  strong  tincture  of  Rhus,  tox.,  and  the  diluted 
tincture  for  use  (the  quadrillionth  of  a  grain  in  each  drop),  also- 
some  tincture  of  Bryonia  root  (I  have  not  now  any  of  my  strong 
one-twentieth  tincture),  strong  and  diluted  (one  sextillionth)." 

In  this  same  letter  he  says:  *"  There  are  other  States  in  which 
much  good  is  done  with  the  South  pole  of  the  magnet,  but  I  will 
not  describe  them  to  you  till  I  can  do  so  by  word  of  mouth,  "f 

In  the  first  volume  of  the  "Materia  Medica  Pura,"  published 
in  181 1,  nothing  is  said  of  the  doses  of  the  medicines.  But  in 
the  latter  volumes  the  doses  of  nearly  every  medicine  are  given. 

In  volume  two,  published  in  1816,  he  recommends  Causticiim,  a 
drop  of  the  original  preparation.  Arsenicum  is  to  be  given  in  the 
twelfth,  eighteenth  or  thirtieth  dilution. 

Ferrum,  the  y^^,  to^uu  or  sj^^-^-^  of  a  grain  is  mentioned. 

Ignatia  is  to  be  used  in  the  ninth  or  twelfth  potency. 

Rheum,  in  acute  afifections  in  the  ninth. 

In  the  third  volume,  China  is  recommended  in  the  twelfth 
dilution;  Asarmn,  in  the  twelfth  or  fifteenth;  Ipecac,  in  the 
third;  Scilla,  fifteenth  or  eighteenth;  Stramonium,  in  the  ninth; 
Veratrmn,  in  the  twelfth. 

*" Lesser  Writings,"  New  York,  p.  769.  Horn.  Times,  Loudon,  Vol.  i.,. 
p.  9. 

■\  Hotn.  World,  \o\.  xxiv.,  p.  208, 


PROSOIvOGY   CONTINUEJD.  453 

In  the  fourth  volume  the  directions  are  as  follows:  Hyoscyamus 
-is  to  be  used  in  the  twelfth,  fifteenth,  eighteenth  dilution;  Digi- 
talis, in  the  fifteenth;  Aurujii,  the  first  and  second  triturations 
of  gold  leaf  are  suggested;  Guaiacum,  a  drop  of  mother  tincture; 
Camphor,  drop  doses  of  one  part  to  eight;  Ledum,  in  the  fifteenth; 
Ruta,  in  the  fifth  decimal;  Sarsaparilla,  in  drop  doses  of  tincture; 
.Sulphur,  Hepar  sulphur  and  Argentum,  in  grain  doses  of  the 
second  trituration. 

The  fifth  volume  of  the  "Materia  Medica  Pura"  was  published 
in  1S19,  and  the  recommendations  were  continued.  Euphrasia^ 
Menyanthes  and  Sambucus,  the  smallest  part  of  a  drop  of  the 
juice;  Cyclamen,  third  dilution;  Calcarea  acetica,  drop  of  the 
saturated  solution;  Muriatic  acid,  drop  of  the  third  decimal; 
Thuja  is  to  be  given  in  the  thirtieth. 

The  second  edition  of  the  "Organon"  was  issued  in  this  year; 
in  it  he  refers  to  the  ' '  Materia  Medica  Pura ' '  for  the  proper 
doses  of  the  medicine. 

In  the  same  year,  in  an  article  on  suicides,  he  recommends  the 
sixth  potency  of  pure  gold. 

The  sixth  volume  of  the  "  Materia  Medica  Pura"  was  issued  in 
1 82 1.  Angustura  is  to  be  given  in  the  sixth;  Manganu^n  acet., 
twenty-fourth;  Capsicum,  ninth;  Colocynth,  eighteenth,  twenty- 
first;  Verbascum,  tincture;  Spongia,  for  goitre  the  mother  tinc- 
ture, and  for  other  uses  the  higher  dilutions;  Drosera,  ninth; 
Bismtith,  second  trituration;  Stannum,  the  sixth. 

The  first  volume  of  the  second  edition  of  the  "  Materia  Medica 
Pura"  was  published  in  1822.  Here  we  find  recommended 
Belladonna,  thirtieth;  Dulcam,ara,  twenty- fourth;  Cina,  ninth; 
Cannabis,  tincture;  Cocculus,  twelfth;  Nux  vomica,  thirtieth; 
Opium,  sixth;  Moschus,  third;  Oleander,  sixth;  Mercurizis  sol., 
twelfth;  Aconite,  twenty- fourth;  Arnica,  sixth. 

From  this  time  to  1828,  when  the  first  three  volumes  of  the 
"  Chronic  Diseases  "  appeared,  there  is  but  little  change  in  the 
size  of  the  dose.  As  may  be  seen,  the  dose  differs  in  the  differ- 
ent medicines,  but  it  runs  from  the  tincture  to  the  thirtieth. 

Hahnemann  had  now  given  to  the  world  his  psora  theory,  and 
now  he  greatly  modified  his  former  opinions  in  regard  to  the  dif- 
ference of  medicinal  doses  and  endeavored  to  adopt  one  uniform 
dilution  for  every  medicine,  the  thirtieth.  The  dose  must  be 
but  one  globule  not  larger  than  a  mustard  seed  soaked  in  this 
dilution. 


454  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

Hahnemann  in  writing  to  Stapf,  in  1826,  says:*  "For  fre- 
quently recurring  facial  erysipelas  Sulphur  f-f^  has  proved  ser- 
viceable. Stick  to  the  lowest  and  smallest  doses,  and  allow  any 
one  which  is  doing  good  to  act  sufficiently  long  until  the  old 
malady  shows  signs  of  recurring." 

Dudgeon,  in  a  note  to  one  of  these  lettersif  "Hahnemann 
originally  termed  those  dilutions  low  which  his  adherents  now 
denominate  high.  Hahnemann's  original  term  was  the  more 
correct.  The  only  excuse  for  calling  excessively  diluted  medi- 
cines high  is  that  the  numerals  that  denote  them  are  so." 

Hahnemann  continues:  "  I  thank  you  for  the  duodecimo  vials. 
There  is  more  than  an  ample  supply  of  them  for  my  purpose, 
which  is  to  send  to  patients  at  a  distance  a  globule  for  olfaction 
in  them.  I  enclose  herewith  a  small  quantity  of  globules  from 
my  little  store.  Should  you  go  to  Leipsic,  get  some  good  con- 
fectioner (or,  better,  one  of  his  best  workmen)  to  make  half  a 
pound  of  similar  globules,  and  send  Gross  as  many  of  them  as  I 
send  to  you  to-day." 

In  a  letter  written  December,  1826,  to  the  same  man,  he  says:!]: 
"The  new  symptoms  that  have  now  appeared  are  evidently 
caused  by  the  Calcarea,  because  they  have  occurred  within  the 
limits  of  its  duration  of  action.  It  has  not  acted  quite  unsuita- 
bly, not  strikingly  unfavorably.  You  will  do  well  to  let  it  act 
for  thirty-six  days,  and  then  give  her  the  enclosed  powder  (two 
globules  of  Lycopodiu7n  iv.)  moistening  them  first  with  two  or 
three  drops  of  water." 

Again,  in  1827,  he  says  of  Calcarea :\\  "  In  metrorrhagias  Cal- 
carea  in  small  doses  is  the  chief  remedy.  If  we  attend  carefully 
to  the  symptoms  in  the  selection  of  an  antipsoric  remedy,  we 
shall  see  in  the  first  twelve  to  eighteen  days  how  far  it  will  serve 
us.  If  it  causes  any  important  new  symptoms,  we  are  as  much 
justified  in  changing  it  for  another  antipsoric  remedy  as  if  it 
should  aggravate  excessively  the  symptoms  it  is  intended  to 
cure;  this  is  owing  to  the  dose  having  been  too  strong,  which 
we  shall  see  within  twelve  or  eighteen  days.  Another  anti- 
psoric remedy  must  then  be  substituted,   and  we  must  not  feel 


*  Horn.  World,  Vol.  xxiv.,  p.  362. 
■\  Horn.  World,  Vol.  xxiv.,  p.  311. 
XHoin  World.  Vol.  xxiv.,  p.  364. 
II  Horn.  World,  Vol.  xxiv.,  p.  366. 


PROSOI.OGY    CONTINUED.  455 

surprised  if,  even  after  the  latter,  the  disease  continues  some 
time  longer." 

In  another  letter  to  Stapf,  dated  September  28,  1829,  he  says:* 
"  I  have  thought  of  two  medicines  for  your  patient  (antipsorics), 
viz.,  for  her  severe  nausea  and  extreme  w&akn&ss  Naif um  muri- 
atiucm  (of  which  I  send  a  globule  \  for  olfaction),  and  for  her 
depression  of  spirits  at  other  times  Co?iium  mac.  x,  at  which 
you  should  only  allow  her  to  smell  once,  allowing  both  to  act 
for  from  twelve  to  twenty  days.  As  a  rule  I  would  counsel  you 
not  to  employ  the  antipsorics  for  this  patient,  who  has  been 
brought  so  low  by  over- excitement,  in  any  other  way  than  by 
olfaction." 

In  a  letter  written  to  Dr.  Schreeter,  and  dated  September  12, 
1829,  Hahnemann  saysrf  "  I  do  not  approve  of  your  dynamizing 
the  medicines  higher  (as  for  instance  up  to  xii  and  xx).  There 
must  be  some  end  to  the  thing;  it  cannot  go  on  to  infinity.  By- 
laying  it  down  as  a  rule  that  all  Homoeopathic  remedies  be 
diluted  and  dynamized  up  to  x,  we  have  a  uniform  mode  of  pro- 
cedure in  the  treatment  of  all  Homoeopathists,  and  when  they 
describe  a  cure  we  can  repeat  it,  as  they  and  we  operate  with 
the  same  tools.  In  one  word,  we  would  do  well  to  go  forward 
uninterruptedly  in  the  beaten  path.  Then  our  enemies  will  not 
be  able  to  reproach  us  with  having  nothing  fixed — no  normal 
standard." 

In  paragraph  270  of  the  fifth  edition  of  the  "  Organon  "  he 
says:  "Two  drops  of  the  fresh  vegetable  juice  mingled  with 
equal  parts  of  alcohol  are  diluted  with  ninety  eight  drops  of 
Alcohol  and  potentized  by  means  of  two  succussions  whereby 
the  first  development  of  power  is  formed,  and  this  process  is 
repeated  through  twenty-nine  more  vials,  each  of  which  is  filled 
three-quarters  full  with  ninety-nine  drops  of  Alcohol,  and  each 
succeeding  vial  is  to  be  provided  with  one  drop  from  the  preced- 
ing vial  (which  has  already  been  shaken  twice)  and  is  in  its 
turn  twice  shaken,  and  in  the  same  manner  at  last  the  thirtieth 
development  of  power  (potentized  decillionth  dilution  x)  which 
is  the  one  most  generally  used." 

Thus  in  the  letter  to  Schreeter,  when  he  speaks  of  dynamiz- 
ing up  to  X  he  means  what  is  termed  the  thirtieth  potency. 

*  Horn.   World,  Vol.  xxv.,  p.  112. 

■\ Brit.  Joiir.  Horn.,  Vol.  v.,  p.  398.     Neue  Archiv.,  Vol.  ii.,  part  3,  1829. 


456  LIFE   OF    HAHNEMANN. 

Hahnemann,  in  prescribing  one  unchangeable  and  fixed  dose 
for  every  one,  seems  to  lose  sight  of  the  idiosyncrasies  and  differ- 
ences of  temperament,  habits  of  life,  etc.,  in  patients.  And  it  is 
very  well  assured  that  he  did  not  confine  himself  to  any  such 
arbitrary  rule  as  the  thirtieth  in  every  case.  His  pocket  case 
tells  a  different  story. 

The  constant  aim  with  Hahnemann  seemed  to  be  to  cure  the 
patient  with  the  smallest  dose  possible.  His  teachings  and 
practice  greatly  varied  in  this  respect;  there  are  many  things  in 
the  "  Organon  "  that  seem  contradictory.  But  underlying  every 
hj'pothesis  is  the  plainly  expressed  wish  to  cure,  and  to  cure  as 
easily  as  he  could. 

As  his  experiments  increased  in  potentization,  and  in  the  use 
of  the  higher  potencies,  he  became  convinced  that  the  attenua- 
tion or  potentization,  or,  as  he  called  it,  dynamization  of  drugs, 
invested  them  with  a  greater  or  spiritual  power.  In  paragraph 
269  of  the  '^  Organon,"  he  says:  "  The  Homoeopathic  system  of 
medicine  develops  for  its  use,  to  a  hitherto  unheard  of  degree, 
the  spirit-like  medicinal  powers  of  the  crude  substances  by 
means  of  a  process  peculiar  to  it  and  which  has  hitherto  never 
been  tried,  whereby  only  they  all  become  penetratingly  effica- 
cious and  remedial,  even  those  that  in  the  crude  state  give  no 
evidence  of  the  slightest  medicinal  power  on  the  human  body." 

Again  in  paragraph  279:  "  The  dose  of  the  Homoeopathically 
selected  remedy  can  never  be  prepared  so  small  that  it  shall  not 
be  stronger  than  the  natural  disease,  and  shall  not  be  able  to 
overpower,  extinguish,  cure  it,  at  least  in  part,  as  long  as  it  is 
capable  of  causing  some,  though  but  a  slight  preponderance  of 
its  own  symptoms  over  those  of  the  disease  resembling  it  (slight 
Homoeopathic  aggravation,  Par.  157,  160,)  immediately  after  its 
ingestion." 

The  perfect  method  was  to  be  able  to  determine  just  how  much 
medicine  would  cure  and  at  the  same  time  leave  the  slightest 
possible  medicinal  aggravation. 

This  notion  of  reducing  all  medication  to  the  thirtieth  potency 
does  not  seem  to  have  been  followed  by  Hahnemann  himself. 

In  speaking  of  the  very  minute  doses  he  says  in  a  note  in  the 
*' Organon,"  fifth  edition:  "The  doctrine  of  the  divisibility  of 
matter  teaches  us  that  we  can  not  make  a  part  so  small  that  it 
shall  cease  to  be  somethi.ig,  and  that  it  shall  not  share  all  the 
properties  of  the  whole. 


POSOLOGY    CONTINUED.  457 

"  If  now  the  smallest  possible  part  is  powerful  enough  for  the 
purpose  for  which  you  require  it,  would  you  employ  a  greater 
quantity  than  you  require,  in  order  not  to  run  counter  to  tra- 
ditional custom,  and  out  of  deference  to  the  prejudices  of  those 
whose  standard  of  measurement  is  imperfect?  And  what  is  the 
use  of  larger  doses  of  medicines  if  the  smallest  possible  quanti- 
ties given  on  the  Homoeopathic  principle  suffice  for  the  cure  of 
diseases  in  the  most  rapid  and  permanent  manner?  The  effect 
of  the  dose  increases  the  greater  the  quantity  of  liquid  it  is  dis- 
solved in  when  given  to  the  patient." 

The  do3e  of  medicine  was  only  to  be  repeated  when  the  effect 
of  the  dose  already  given  was  exhausted. 


CHAPTER  LXXXIV. 

POSOLOGY   CONTINUED. 

In  all  the  directions  for  preparing  drugs  but  two  vehicles  were 
recommended  by  Hahnemann,  sugar  of  milk  for  triturations  and 
alcohol  for  the  attenuations.  To  this  rule  he  always  adhered. 
The  dilutions  were  also  all  to  be  made  in  a  separate  vial,  and 
succussions  to  be  given  to  each. 

In  paragraph  288  of  the  "  Organon,"  he  mentions  olfaction  as 
a  means  of  cure,  saying:  "  It  is  especially  in  the  form  of  vapor, 
by  olfaction  and  inhalation  of  the  medicinal  aura  that  is  always 
emanating  from  a  globule  impregnated  with  a  medicinal  fluid  in 
a  high  development  of  power,  and  placed  dry  in  a  small  vial, 
that  the  Homoeopathic  remedies  act  most  surely  and  most  power- 
fully. The  Homoeopathic  physician  allows  the  patient  to  hold 
the  open  mouth  of  the  vial  first  in  one  nostril,  and  in  the  act  of 
inspiration  draw  the  air  out  of  it  into  himself,  and  then  if  it  is 
wished  to  give  a  stronger  dose,  smell  in  the  same  manner  with  the 
other  nostril,  more  or  less  strongly,  according  to  the  strength  it 
is  intended  the  dose  should  be;  he  then  corks  up  the  vial  and 
replaces  it  in  his  pocket  case  to  prevent  misuse  of  it,  and  unless 
he  wish  it,  he  has  no  occasion  for  an  apothecary's  assistance  in 
his  practice." 

Hahnemann  continues  to  speak  of  the  undiminished  power  of 
the  medicated  globule  after  many  years,  and  of  being  convinced 
that  the  action  of  medicine  on  the  system  is  as  strong  by  olfaction 
as  by  the  ordinary  method  of  the  mouth. 


458  LIFE    OF   HAHNEMANN. 

In  a  letter  to  Stapf,  dated  February  15,  1830,  he  says,  in  speak- 
ing of  the  expected  decision  regarding  the  right  of  Homceopathic 
physicians  to  dispense  their  own  medicines:* 

"I  learn  from  Von  Brunnow  that  the  question  respecting  the 
dispensing  their  medicines  by  Homoeopathists  will  be  determined 
by  the  Government  in  the  beginning  of  February.  Von  Brun- 
now doubts  if  it  will  be  settled  in  our  favor.  But,  howsoever  it 
may  turn  out,  at  all  events  we  shall  set  heads  and  hearts  in 
motion,  and  that  in  no  small  manner;  and  if  they  will  not  now 
do  us  justice  they  will  in  the  end  be  forced  to  do  so. 

"How  would  it  do  if  you  were  in  the  Archiv  to  recommend 
the  Homoeopaths,  who  are  persecuted  by  the  medical  authorities 
for  dispensing  their  own  medicines  to  adopt  a  plan  whereby  they 
could  elude  all  such  laws,  e.  g.,  that  they  should  not  allow  their 
patients  to  take  anything  material,  but  only  let  them  smell  at  a 
phial  in  their  pocket-cases,  so  that  the  physician  neither  gives 
powders  himself  nor  prescribes  them  from  the  drug  shops.  La 
rarete  du  fait  would  serve  to  maintain  their  patients'  confidence; 
no  authority  could  forbid  this,  and  experience  shows  that  acute 
as  well  as  chronic  diseases  of  all  kinds  can  be  happily  and  speedily 
cured  by  this  means.  This  would  be  the  speediest  way  to  induce 
the  governmental  authorities  to  grant  us  the  right  to  dispense  our 
medicines,  when  they  see  that  we  can  do  without  their  permis- 
sion.    If  I  were  in  such  a  difficulty  I  would  at  once  do  this." 

The  following  letter,  probably  written  in  1831,  is  of  interest, 
inasmuch  as  it  bears  upon  the  repetition  of  the  dose  in  chronic 
diseases. t 

Hahnemann's  dictum  always  was  that  the  proper  dose  should 
be  allowed  to  act  as  long  as  its  action  lasted,  before  another  dose 
was  given.     This  we  find  illustrated  in  the  letter: 

^^  My  Dear  Postmaster:  You  have  done  well  to  enquire  of  me 
whether,  in  case  of  obvious  (striking)  amelioration  of  your 
salivary  fistula,  you  should  nevertheless  take  the  new  medica- 
ment ?  I  answer:  No  !  Continue  so  long  entirely  without  medi- 
cine, living  regularly,  until  the  gland  has  been  again  getting 
worse  for  seven  days.     Then  only  begin  with  the  new  medicine. 

"  It  is  impossible  in  the  various  constitutions  of  the  body  to 
determine  how  long  a  given  antipsoric  drug  may  continue  to  act. 

*  Horn.  World,  Vol.  xxv.,  p.  114. 
t  The  Organon,  Vol.  ii.,  p.  172. 


POSOLOGY   CONTINUED.  459 

This  mucli,  however,  is  certain,  that  its  action  lasts  as  long  as 
it  does  good  and  the  disease  does  not  again  contimioiisly  increase." 

He  says  to  Schreter,  in  1829:*  "Your  want  of  success  in  the 
cases  you  have  recorded  is  certainly  owing  to  the  rapid  changes 
of  the  remedies,  the  often  unfitting  dilution  and  dynamization, 
and  the  too  large  doses. 

"Once  you  have  spoilt  matters  with  these  three  faults  for 
about  four  weeks,  it  is  very  difficult  to  set  them  right  again.  My 
advice  is  that  you  bide  rigorously  by  the  precepts  contained  in 
my  book  on  chronic  diseases;  and,  if  possible,  go  still  further 
than  I  have  done,  in  allowing  a  still  longer  period  for  the  anti- 
psoric  remedies  to  exhaust  their  action,  in  administering  still 
smaller  doses  than  I  have  advised,  and  in  dynamizing  all  anti- 
psoric  medicines  up  to  thirty." 

In  1832  was  published,  in  Stapf's  Archiv,^  an  article  by  one 
Herr  Von  Korsakoff,  a  noble  and  landed  proprietor  near  Moscow, 
and  a  great  dilettante  upon  the  subject  of  Homoeopathy,;}:  en- 
titled: "Experiences  on  the  Propagation  of  the  Medicinal 
Power  of  Homoeopathic  Remedies,  with  Ideas  on  the  Mode  of 
Propagation."  In  this  he  advocated  that  the  attenuation  or 
potentization  of  remedies  might  be  carried  much  higher  than 
had  hitherto  been  done;  he  potentized  a  remedy  to  the  1500th 
dynamization.  He  said  that  one  medicated  globule  placed  in  a 
bottle  in  which  were  a  thousand  unmedicated  globules  would 
medicate  the  whole. 

He  claims  to  have  medicated  13,500  globules  with  a  single 
globule  of  Sulphur  30th.  He  thought  that  the  material  division 
of  medicine  ceased  at  the  sixth  dilution,  and  that  after  that  the 
medicinal  power  was  dynamic  or  spiritual. 

There  is  a  letter  from  Hahnemann  in  answer  to  these  ex- 
travagances in  the  same  number.  He  admits  that  the  experi- 
ments are  curious  and  says:|| 

"I  must  say  that  these  procedures  seem  to  show  chiefly  how 
high  one  can  go  with  the  potentized  attenuation  of  medicines 
without  their  action  on  the  human  health  becoming  7iil.  For 
this  these  experiments  are  of  inestimable  value;  but  for  the  Hom- 

*  Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  v.,  p.  397. 

^  Archiv  fur  horn.  Heilkunst,  Vol.  xi.,  part  2,  p.  87. 

X  Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  v.,  p.  129. 

II  Dudgeon's  "Organon,"  p.  303. 


460  LIFE    OF   HAHNEMANN. 

CEopathic  treatment  of  patients  it  is  expedient  in  the  preparation 
of  all  kinds  of  medicines  to  remain  stationary  at  the  decillionth 
attenuation  and  potency,  in  order  that  Homoeopathic  practition- 
ers may  be  able  to  promise  themselves  uniform  results  in  their 
cures." 

Hahnemann  did  not  altogether  indorse  this  plan,  although  it 
is  likely  that  he  afterwards  made  use  at  times  of  the  very  high 
attenuations. 

But  certain  of  his  followers,  years  later,  notably  Dr.  Gross, 
made  use  of  these  high  potencies.  Dr.  Gross  induced  one  Herr 
Jenichen  of  Wismar,  who  was  said  to  be  a  horse  breaker,  or  trainer, 
to  undertake  the  preparation  of  high  potencies.  He  did  so, 
making  from  the  looth  up  to  the  60,000th  potency.  His  prepara- 
tions were  declared  by  a  certain  part  of  the  profession  to  be 
valuable.  His  method  of  attenuation  was  kept  a  profound  secret. 
Dr.  Dudgeon,  in  the  British  Journal  of  Homoeopathy,  gave  a 
sketch  of  his  life  and  explained  his  methods  in  preparing  these 
so-called  high  potencies.  He  was  a  very  powerful  man  and 
hence  he  was  enabled  by  his  vigorous  shakes  to  greatly  increase 
the  strength  of  the  medicine  he  was  preparing.  Contrary  to  the 
dictum  of  Hahnemann,  who  recommended  but  a  limited  number 
of  succussions,  Jenichen  gave  each  remedy  many  thousand 
shakes,  and  is  said  to  have  worked  five  hours  a  day  in  their 
manufacture.* 

In  the  pamphlet  on  the  "  Cure  of  Asiatic  Cholera  "  he  recom- 
mends drop  doses  of  a  strong  solution  of  Camphor  every  five 
minutes,  with  Camphor  2i\so  to  be  rubbed  upon  the  skin.f 

Two  cases  cured  by  Hahnemann  were  published  in  the  New 
Archives  for  1844,  by  Boenninghausen.  A  girl  of  fourteen  years 
had  a  sunstroke,  and  Hahnemann  gave  Belladonna  as  follows: 
One  globule  of  the  sixtieth  potency  dissolved  in  seven  teaspoon- 
fuls  of  water,  of  this  solution  one  tablespoonful  dissolved  in  one 
glass  of  water,  and,  after  stirring,  one  teaspoonful  of  this  latter 
solution  was  to  be  taken  in  the  morning. 

The  next  day  a  teaspoonful  of  this  last-mentioned  solution 
was  dissolved  in  a  .second  tumbler  of  water,  and  two  to  four  tea- 
spoonfuls  were  to  be  taken  in  the  morning.  Five  days  later  one 
globule  of  Belladonna  higher  potency,  dissolved  in  seven  table- 


*  Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  x.,  p.  168.     Dudgeon's  Lectures,  p.  353. 
t  "  Lesser  Writings,"  New  York. 


POSOLOGY   CONTINUED.  46 1 

spoonfuls  of  water,  one  tablespoonful  to  be  mixed  in  a  tumbler 
of  water  and  one  teaspoonful  to  be  taken  every  morning  for  six 
days.  At  intervals  of  some  days  Hyos.  30  and  a  high  potency 
■of  Sulphur  were  also  used.* 

The  other  case  mentioned  was  treated  in  much  the  same  man- 
ner in  regard  to  the  potency  and  repetition  of  the  dose. 

In  the  second  edition  of  the  "  Chronic  Diseases,"  1835,  Nitric 
acid  is  recommended  in  the  sixth,  and  in  the  preface  to  the  third 
part,  1837,  he  says  that  when  the  thirtieth  potency  has  become 
powerless  the  twenty-fourth  should  be  used.  He  advises  giving 
a  dose  daily  of  the  medicine  each  time  in  a  lower  potency. 

Dr.  Romani,  in  1845,  published  a  historical  eulogy  upon  Hahn- 
•emann,  and  in  it  is  a  letter  written  by  Hahnemann  to  a 
Russian  general  living  in  Naples,  whose  son  he  was  treating. 
It  is  dated  at  Coethen,  August  31,  1833.  He  says:t  "  I  forward 
seven  globules;  the  patient  is  to  take  one  every  seven  days,  in 
the  morning  on  an  empty  stomach.  The  globules  are  to  be  dis- 
solved in  a  spoonful  of  water.  When  taking  the  globule  marked 
one,  the  patient  is  to  smell  at  the  same  time  with  both  the  nos- 
trils at  the  tube  marked  S.  He  must  smell  at  the  tube  C.  when 
he  takes  globule  three,  and  smell  at  the  tube  H.  S.  when  he 
takes  globule  number  five.  He  should  only  make  one  olfac- 
tion." It  is  probable  that  the  medicine  was  in  the  tubes  and 
not  in  the  globules. 

In  January,  1843,  Hahnemann  wrote  to  Dr.  Romani  from 
Paris,  prescribing  for  a  patient  with  cancer  of  the  tongue  Acidum 
rmuriatictmi  thirtieth,  one  globule  in  fifteen  spoonfuls  of  water 
and  one  of  Alcohol,  in  a  smooth  bottle;  this  was  to  be  shaken 
and  a  tablespoonful  of  this  put  in  a  tumbler  containing  ten 
spoonfuls  of  water.  The  patient  was  to  take  for  two  days  a  tea- 
spoonful,  the  third  and  fourth  days  two  teaspoonfuls,  etc., 
increasing  the  doses. 

In  February,  in  another  letter,  Hahnemann  sends  Dr.  Romani 
two  globules  of  Thuja,  "a  very  highly  perfected  dynamization, 
which  will  be  fully  described  in  the  forthcoming  sixth  edition  of 
tny  '  Organon.'  "     This  was  to  be  used  in  a  similar  manner. 

In  a  letter  dated  October  10,  1829,  addressed  to  his  favorite 
nephew,  Trinius,  Hahnemann  says:]}:  "  It  is  wonderful,  but  not 

*  Fincke  on  High  Potencies,  p.  ti8. 
^;  Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  xiii.,  p.  147. 
:]:  Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  xxx.,  p.  297. 


462  LIFE   OF   HAHNEMANN. 

the  less  true,  that  the  higher  a  medicine  is  refined  and  potentized 
the  more  permanent  its  efficacy.  If  the  highly  potentized  medi- 
cine would  not  evaporate,  it  would  be  found  as  powerful  as  ever 
after  the  lapse  of  a  generation. 

"The  powders  you  got  from  Neudietendorf,  if  kept  in  well- 
corked  vials,  will,  so  far  as  I  know,  retain  their  power  unaltered 
forever ;  and  if  we  moisten  a  globule  the  size  of  a  hemp  seed 
with  the  last  dilution  (x),  for  the  purpose  of  allowing  delicate 
patients  to  smell  at  it,  in  place  of  taking  it  (as  is  often  neces- 
sary), such  globules  retain  their  medicinal  power  for  many 
years,  as  I  can  testify,  although  the  bottles  in  which  they  are 
contained  may  be  often  opened  for  olfaction. 

"Such  being  the  case,  the  Homoeopathic  practitioner  prepares 
his  medicines  to  last  him  all  his  life,  by  dropping  six  or  eight 
drops  of  the  last  dilution  (x)  of  each  fluid  medicine  into  a  small, 
narrow,  rather  high  vessel;  as,  for  instance,  a  clean  thimble, 
containing  a  number  of  finest  sugar  globules  (three  hundred  of 
which  weigh  a  grain),  from  four  to  five  thousand.  By  this  they 
will  be  more  than  saturated  and  impregnated  with  the  medicine. 
The  whole  thimbleful  of  moistened  globules  is  to  be  emptied  on 
to  a  piece  of  paper  and  spread  out  by  means  of  a  thin  bit  of 
wood.  In  about  a  quarter  of  an  hour  they  are  dry,  and  must  be 
kept  in  a  wide-mouthed,  well-corked  bottle,  and  duly  labeled. 
Of  course  the  piece  of  paper  and  bit  of  wood  must  be  always 
thrown  away,  and  fresh  ones  used  for  each  medicine.  The 
thimble,  too,  must  every  time  be  washed  and  dried  in  the  most 
careful  manner,  before  using  it  for  another  medicine. 

"In  this  way  we  obtain  a  supply  of  all  Homoeopathic  and 
antipsoric  medicines,  which  will  retain  their  powers  undimin- 
ished for  an  incalculable  number  of  years.  They  are  always 
ready  for  use,  are  sufficient  for  a  lifelong  practice,  or  even  for 
stocking  a  hospital  for  life.  I  beg  you  will  communicate  what 
stands  in  this  page  to  the  other  Homoeopathists,  especially  to 
the  docile  Dr.  Hermann,  and  believe  me  to  remain, 

"Yours,  "  Sam.  Hahnemann." 

In  a  letter  written  to  Dr.  Lehmann  on  March  23,  1841,  Hahne- 
mann requests  him  to  send  the  third  trituration  of  a  number  of 
medicines,  the  list  of  which  he  encloses.  Dr.  Lehmann,  who 
had  been  his  assistant  at  Coethen,  prepared  his  medicines  up  to 
the  end  of  Hahnemann's  life.* 


*  Preface  "Lesser  Writings,"  New  York. 


POSOLOGY   CONCLUDED.  463 


CHAPTER  I.XXXV. 

POSOLOGY   CONCLUDED. 

In  1853,  Dr.  J.  Chapman,  writing  to  the  lyondon  Homoeopathic 
Times,  says:*  "My  reason  for  addressing  you  is  to  prove  what 
was  the  actual  practice  of  Hahnemann  during  his  residence  in 
Paris,  and  to  the  close  of  his  life.  I  have  before  me,  while  I 
write,  the  box  of  medicines  he  carried  about  with  him  during 
the  time  I  have  mentioned.  It  is  a  very  small  box,  made  to  con- 
tain 160  tubes  of  globules;  these  tubes  are  very  small,  and  each 
of  them  contains  about  fifty  or  sixty  globules  when  filled.  The 
corks  were  marked  by  Hahnemann  himself  with  the  names  of 
the  medicines  and  the  number  of  the  dilution  of  each. 

"  His  characteristic  handwriting  would  be  recognized  at  once 
by  any  one  familiar  with  it. 

"  Four  of  the  tubes  are  missing,  and  one  has  a  blank  cork,  so 
that  there  is  evidence  given  from  155  tubes  of  the  practice  of 
Hahnemann  in  respect  to  the  dilution,  for  it  was  from  this  box 
that  he  gave  medicines  to  his  patients. 

"  It  may  be  conjectured  that  Manganum  was  contained  in  one 
of  the  missing  tubes,  i^s  there  are  three  dilutions  of  ^r;zzVa, 
Arse7iiami  and  Bryonia  there  were  probably  three  of  Aconite, 
Belladonna  and  Pulsatilla,  this  would  account  for  the  three  miss- 
ing tubes.     This,  however,  is  mere  conjecture. 

"The  dilutions  he  habitually  used,  it  may  be  seen,  were  the 
sixth,  ninth,  twelfth,  eighteenth,  twenty-fourth  and  thirtieth. 
Hahnemann  used  at  his  house  a  larger  box  containing  the  same 
medicines  and  dilutions  as  those  in  the  smaller. 

"The  Reverend  Mr.  Everest,  the  English  friend  of  Hahnemann, 
has,  I  believe,  one  or  more  duplicate  boxes  containing  the  med- 
icines corresponding  to  those  in  Hahnemann's  box.  He  can 
supply  the  gaps  of  the  four  missing  tubes."     *     *     *     * 

THE  MEDICINES  AND  DILUTIONS  OF  THEM  HABITUALLY  USED 
BY  HAHNEMANN. 

Acidum  muriaticum,  30.  Aconite,  12,  30. 

Acidum  nitricum,  30.  Agaricus,  30. 

Acidum  phosphoricum,  30.  Agnus  castus,  18. 

Acidum  sulphuricum,  30.  Alumina,  30. 

"^ Horn.  Times,  VoL  iv.,  p.  685.    Kirby's  Am.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  viii.,  p.  42. 


464 


LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 


Ambra  grisea,  24. 

Ammonium  carbonicum,  24. 

Auacardium,  18. 

Augustura,  30. 

Antimonium  crudum,  24. 

Autimouium  tart.,  12. 

Aranea  diadema,  30. 

Argentum,  24. 

Arnica  montana,  6,  12,  30. 

Arsenicum  album,  9,  18,  30. 

Asafoetida,  30. 

Asarum  Europeum,  30. 

Aurum  metallicum,  12,  30. 

Baryta  acetica,  30. 

Baryta  carbonica,  30. 

Belladonna,  12,  30. 

Bismuthum,  18. 

Borax,  18. 

Bovista,  24. 

Bryonia,  6,  18,  30. 

Caladium  seguiuum,  24. 

Calcarea  acetica,  24. 

Calcarea  carb.,  30. 

Camphor,  6,  24. 

Cancer  fluviatilis,  12. 

Cannabis  sativa,  12,  30. 

Cantharis,  30. 

Capsicum,  30. 

Carbo  animalis,  24. 

Carbo  vegetabilis,  12,  30. 

Castoreum,  24. 

Chamomilla,  12. 

Chelidouium  majus,  30. 

China,  30. 

Also  a  tube  of  China  unnumbered. 

Cicuta,  24. 

Cina,  30. 

Cinnabar,  24. 

Clematis,  12. 

Cocculus,  12. 

CofFea  cruda,  12,  30. 

Colchicura,  18. 

Colocynth,  30. 

Coniuni  maculatum,  24. 

Copaiba,  24. 

Coralliuni,  30. 

Crocus  sativus,  18. 

Cuprum  metallicum,  30. 

Cyclamen,  24. 

Digitalis,  24. 

Drosera,  18. 

Dulcamara,  24. 

Kuphorbium,  24. 

Euphrasia,   12. 

I'-errum  metallicum,  24. 

Filix  mas.,  18. 

Graphites,  24. 

Gratiola,  24. 

Guaiacum,  30. 

Helleborus  uiger,  24. 


Hepar  sulphuris,  18. 

Hyoscyamus,  12. 

Ignatia,  12. 

Indigo,  30. 

lodiuni,  30. 

Ipecacuanha,  12. 

Jacea,  24. 

Kali  carbonicum,  30. 

Kali  hydriodicum,  24. 

L,achesis,  30. 

Laniium  album,  24. 

Ledum,  24. 

Lycopodium,  30. 

Magnesia  carbonica,  24. 

Magnesia  muriatica,  24. 

Menyanthes  trifol.,  24. 

Mercurius  corr.,  24. 

Mercurius  sol.,  30. 

Mercurius  vivus,  24. 

Mezereum,  24. 

Millefolium,  12. 

Millep  (thus  on  cork),  24. 

Moschus,  24. 

Natrum  carb.,  24. 

Natrum  muriaticum,  30. 

Niccolum,  24. 

Nitrum,  24. 

Nux  vomica,  12,  30. 

Oleander,  24. 

Oleum  animale,  30. 

01.  terebinth,  30. 

Opium,  12,  30. 

Paris  quadrifolia,  24. 

Petroleum,  24. 

Petrosilinum,  18. 

Phellaudrium,  24. 

Phosphorus,  18. 

Platina,  24. 

Plumbum  metallicum,  24. 

Pulsatilla,  9,  30 

Ranunculus  bulbosus,  18. 

Rheum,  18. 

Rhus  tox,  12. 

Ruta,  12. 

Sabadilla,  18. 

Sabina,  24. 

Sambucus,  18. 

Sarsaparilla,  24. 

Secale  corn,  18. 

Selenium,  18. 

Sepia,  30. 

Silicea,  not  numbered,  probably  30. 

Spigelia,  24. 

Spongia,  30. 

Squilla,  30. 

Stannum,  30. 

Staphysagria,  24. 

Stramonium,  24. 

Strontiana,  30. 

Sulphur,  30. 


POSOI.OGY    CONCLUDED.  .  465 

Tabacuni,  12.  Veratrum,  30. 

Teucrium  marum,  18.  Verbascuni,  18. 

Thuja,   12.  Viola  odor.,  18. 

Tiuct.  sulpli.,  24.  Uva  ursi,  30. 

Valeriau,  18.  Ziucum  met.,  30. 

In  the  next  number  of  the  Times,  Dr.  Chapman  says:*  "Since 
m}'^  last  letter  I  have  seen  two  boxes  of  Homoeopathic  medicines, 
which  Hahnemann  selected  for  a  patient  in  the  years  1841-42. 
He  died,  as  you  know,  in  1843.  The  larger  box  contains  one 
hundred  and  fifty  tubes;  among  them  is  Arnica  3,  Euphrasia  6 
and  other  low  dilutions.  None  is  higher  than  thirty.  In  this 
box  the  dilutions  are  three,  six,  nine,  twelve,  eighteen,  twenty- 
four,  thirty.  I  have  what  I  consider  the  best  possible  authority 
for  stating  that  Hahnemann  used  no  medicine  beyond  the 
thirtieth  dilution." 

This  letter  caused  some  discussion  among  the  London  physi- 
■cians.  Dr.  Chapman  insisted  that  the  box  was  the  one  used  by 
Hahnemann  and  that  he  had  its  loan  from  a  person  to  whom 
Hahnemann  gave  it  only  a  few  days  previous  to  his  death. 

In  the  Times  for  July  30,  1853,  the  Reverend  Mr.  Everest, 
who  probably  knew  more  about  Hahnemann  than  any  man  then 
living,  published  a  letter  to  Dr.  Luther,  in  which  he  says:t 

"Hahnemann  endeavored  to  find  means  to  administer  remedies 
in  such  a  way  that  the  least  possible  disturbance  compatible  with 
■cure  should  result.  To  this  end  he  made  a  great  variety  of  ex- 
periments. The  first  in  order  was  olfaction,  and  this  he  adopted 
in  certain  cases  to  the  end  of  his  life;  I  am  not  aware  that  he  al- 
together abandoned  it. 

"But  certain  objections  caused  him  to  seek  for  some  other 
means  of  moderating  medicinal  action.  His  next  experiment 
■was  to  dissolve  three,  two  or  one  globule  in  a  glass  of  water,  and 
then,  after  carefully  stirring,  to  put  a  dessert  or  teaspoonful  of 
this  into  another  glass. 

"He  still  found,  however,  that  in  very  many  delicate  constitu- 
tions too  much  excitement  was  produced  even  thus,  when  the 
medicine  was  accurately  chosen  ;  for  if  a  medicine  is  not  exactly 
harmonic  to  the  case,  its  effects  are,  of  course,  much  less,  inas- 
much as  in  that  case  it  acts  on  a  part  of  the  organism  not  mor- 
bidly excited;  and  this  remark  will  explain  why  so  many  prac- 

*  Horn.  Times,  Vol.  iv.,  p.  700. 
^  Horn.  Times,  Vol.  iv.  p.  731. 


466  LIFE   OF   HAHNEMANN. 

ticers  of  the  modern  or  '  improved  Homoeopathy '  experience  so 
few  cases  of  aggravation,  that  is  because  they  give  medicines  at 
random,  and  so  do  not  touch  the  disturbed  nerves  at  all. 

"The  attenuation  was  sometimes  carried  through  two,  three,, 
four,  five  and  six  tumblers;  but  it  was  a  very  inconvenient  pro- 
ceeding, and  it  had  none  of  that  simplicity  which  Nature's  laws 
generally  have. 

"He  tried,  in  its  order,  the  diminution  of  the  number  of 
shakes,  but  that  seemed  not  to  give  the  accurate  result  that  he 
wanted.  He  tried  many  plans  and  made  many  experiments  with 
one  or  two  of  which  I  am  acquainted  and  others  I  have  forgotten^ 
if  ever  I  heard  them. 

"The  last,  however,  and  the  one  that  gave  the  most  satisfac- 
tory^ results  (I  believe  I  may  say  that  he  was  perfectly  satisfied 
with  them),  was  the  plan  I  will  now  explain: 

"Starting  from  the  first  spirituous  tincture  of  any  medicine,, 
which  I  believe  was  the  third  from  the  commencement,  and  is,  ac- 
cording to  the  ordinary  notation,  written  i,  instead  of  adding  one 
drop  of  this  dynamization  to  one  hundred  drops  of  spirit  of  wine 
to  make  the  next,  and  so  continuing  the  dynamization  by  drops, 
he  moistened  a  few  globules  of  a  fixed  normal  size  with  it,  and 
taking  in  the  first  experiments,  I  believe,  ten,  but  in  the  latter 
and  more  satisfactory  ones  only  one  globule  of  tho.se  so  moistened 
he  dissolved  that  in  a  minute  drop  of  water,  and  then  added  one 
hundred  drops  of  spirit  of  wine.  Having  shaken  it  (I  forget  how 
much)  he  moistened  globules  with  this,  and  having  dried  them^ 
put  them  into  a  tube  in  his  medicine  chest,  well  corked;  these 
he  labelled  f .  The  next  dynamization  was  procured  by  dis- 
solving one  globule  of  y  in  a  small  drop  of  water,  and  adding 
one  hundred  drops  of  spirit  of  wine;  with  this  he  humected 
globules  as  before,  and  called  that  dynamization  f .  This  pro- 
ceeding was  thus  carried  on  until  the  tenth,  which  was  labelled 
y^.  Originally  I  think  he  used  the  Roman  characters,  and 
called  them  ,",  °,  etc.,  but  afterwards  adhered  for  these  prepara- 
tions to  the  Arabic  ciphers. 

"The  preparations  so  made  were  called  medicamens  au  globule 
(which  is  the  meaning  of  the  o),  to  distinguish  them  from  the 
old  ones,  which  are  marked  with  a  small  cross  (x),  and  called 
inedicanie7is  a  la  goutte  (medicines  of  the  drop). 

"  He  was  so  entirely  satisfied  with  the  gentle  and  kindly  ac- 


POSOLOGY   CONCLUDED.  467 

tions  of  these  preparations  that  they  would,  I  think,  almost  have 
superseded  with  him  all  other  preparations.  I  possess  many  of 
the  medicines  so  prepared  for  him;  most  of  them  are  complete 
series  from  ^  to  j%. 

"  I  do  not  recollect  that  any  were  carried  beyond  10,  unless  it 
was  Phosphorzis,  which  I  think  he  made  up  to  y"-. 

"This  is  written  from  memory,  but  I  believe  the  account  is 
quite  or  nearly  accurate.  Hahnemann  only  confided  to  me  the 
preparation  of  his  globules  (most  of  which  I  made  myself  for 
him).  Another  friend  prepared  the  dynamizations.  I  trusted 
to  memory,  because  Hahnemann  has  so  often  told  me  that  the 
new  edition  of  the  '  Organon '  would  contain  the  whole  account 
of  that  and  many  other  most  valuable  discoveries,  and  I  know 
that  that  edition  was  ready,  because  Hahnemann  himself  had 
intrusted  to  me  to  negotiate  with  a  bookseller  of  Paris  the 
publication  of  it."  >ic  jk  ^  ^  * 

Dr.  lyUther  also  wrote  on  the  subject,  and  expressed  a  wish 
that  Madame  Hahnemann  be  induced  to  publish  the  new  edition 
of  the  "Organon"  so  that  the  latest  ideas  of  Hahnemann  on  the 
dose  might  be  given  to  the  Homoeopathic  profession.  This  cor- 
respondence may  also  be  found  in  Kirby's  American  Journal  of 
Homceopathy ,  New  York,  Vol.  viii. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  Hahnemann's  constant  effort  was  to 
make  the  dose  of  medicine  as  small  as  he  possibly  could  and  yet 
cure  the  patient,  and  it  is  most  probable  that  could  we  obtain  the 
annotations  of  the  unpublished  sixth  edition  of  the  "Organon," 
much  light  would  be  thrown  on  his  latest  opinions. 


468  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 


CHAPTER  LXXXVI. 

TRIAL   OF   MADAME  HAHNEMANN   FOR   PRACTICING   ILLEGALLY — 
VISIT    OF   DR.   I.  T.  TALBOT, 

After  Hahnemann's  death  Madame  Hahnemann  still  continued 
to  practice.  In  the  Allgemeine  Zeitung  the  following  appears:* 
"The  widow  of  Dr.  Hahnemann  announces  that  she  will  prac- 
tice medicine,  and  on  her  card  she  has  placed  the  legend : 
Madame  Hahiiemann,  docteur  en  medicine  homeopathique y 

As  has  previously  been  stated,  before  the  death  of  the  Master, 
Madame  Hahnemann  usually  prescribed  for  the  patients,  asking, 
when  needful,  Hahnemann's  advice.  Afterwards  the  patients 
still  continued  to  go  to  her  as  before.  No  one  interfered  with 
her  for  several  years. 

In  1847,  through  the  instigation  of  M.  Orfila,  the  Dean  of  the 
Medical  Faculty  of  Paris,  a  process  was  brought  against  Madame 
Hahnemann  in  the  courts  for  practicing  without  a  diploma. 
The  following  account  of  her  trial  was  taken  from  the  steno- 
graphic reports  and  was  published  in  the  Hygea :  f 

"  Paris,  February  20,  1848.  After  Madame  Hahnemann  had 
given  the  President  her  name,  age,  etc.,  she  was  impeached  on 
the  counts  of  practicing  medicine  and  pharmacy  illegally;  of 
distributing  cards  bearing  the  title  of  doctor  of  medicine.  She 
denied  these  things.  She  said  she  neither  was  a  physician  nor 
did  she  keep  a  pharmacy;  to  the  title  of  doctor  she  had  a  right 
from  the  Academy  in  Pennsylvania,  without  reference  to  her  rela- 
tions with  Hahnemann;  and  that  this  school  was  the  greatest 
Homoeopathic  school  in  the  world.  To  the  question  as  to  her 
practice  of  medicine,  her  ability  to  practice,  her  medical  learn- 
ing, she  replied  that  she  was  only  a  lay  practitioner,  an  inter- 
mediary between  doctors,  whose  standing  the  Faculty  recog- 
nized. Madame  Hahnemann  then  mentioned  her  advocate,  who 
sat  at  her  side,  the  eminent  M.  Chaix  d'Est  Ange,  who  would 
defend  her. 

*  Allg.  horn.  Zeitung,  Vol.  xxv.,  January  29,  1844. 

t  Hygea :  Centralorgan  fur  die  horn,  oder  specifi.  Heilkimst.  Dr.  Gries- 
selich.     Vol.  i.,  new  series,  p.  245. 

See  also:  "  Compte-Rendu  du  Proces  de  Mme.  Haliuenianu,  Docteur  en 
Honiceopathie.  Question  d'exercice  de  la  Medicine.   Paris:  Bailliere.  1847." 


TRIAL  OF  MADAME  HAHNEMANN.  469 

"  Witnesses  whereby  this  would  be  proven  of  Madame  Hahne- 
mann were  witnesses  of  the  old  school  (the  plaintiff  was  M. 
Orfila,  Dean  of  the  Faculty  of  Paris),  and  the  death  of  one 
Madame  Broggi  was  the  cause  of  this  prosecution. 

"Doctors  Deleau  and  Croserio,  the  agents  of  Madame  Hahne- 
mann, were  also  examined.  The  first  one  calls  himself  the  as- 
sistant of  Madame  Hahnemann,  and  says  that  he  goes  to  her 
office  twice  a  week,  sees  the  patients,  examines  them,  and  pre- 
scribes for  them,  that  he  confers  with  Madame  Hahnemann,  the 
heiress  of  the  Hahnemannic  system  of  medicine,  and  she  tells 
him  that  her  husband  used  to  do  so  and  so,  under  such  and  such 
circumstances,  but  that  he  advises  Madame  Hahnemann  only  in 
difiicult  cases.  Dr.  Deleau  denies  that  Madame  Hahnemann 
was  Madame  Broggi's  physician,  and  says  that  he  himself  had 
been  her  physician.  But  since,  as  the  President  says,  it  was 
shown  by  the  testimony  of  witnesses  that  Madame  Broggi  was 
treated  directly  by  Madame  Hahnemann,  Dr.  Deleau  acknowl- 
edged that  he  was  not  always  at  the  House  of  Ordination,  that 
Madame  Hahnemann  was  there  then;  that  she  keeps  a  memo- 
randum book  respecting  the  patients,  noting  down  their  symp- 
toms, etc.,  and  that  on  his  return  they  were  accustomed  to  talk 
over  matters,  but  that  he  writes  the  prescriptions.  He  further 
says  that  although  Madame  Hahnemann  had  been  her  husband's 
secretary,  she  never  visits  patients  unless  he  (Deleau)  is  with 
her.  Dr.  Croserio  said  substantially  the  same,  and  added  that 
Hahnemann  often  said  to  him:  *  My  wife  understands  Hom- 
oeopathy perfectly;  she  knows  as  much  about  it  as  I  do.'  He  and 
Dr.  Croserio  regarded  Madame  Hahnemann  as  a  fully  competent 
physician,  and  they  say  that  she  is  more  familiar  with  Hom- 
oeopathy than  any  of  the  physicians.  They  both  denied  that 
Madame  Hahnemann  had  received  any  honorary  degree,  but 
said  that  she  had  received  something  of  a  like  nature.  One 
woman  testified  that  a  ring  had  been  presented  to  Madame 
Hahnemann.  An  apothecary  named  Lethiere  furnished  medi- 
cines gratuitously  upon  the  prescriptions  of  physicians. 

"It  was  very  evident  that  Madame  Hahnemann  practiced  med- 
icine, even  physicians  acknowledged  her  as  the  mistress.  The 
requisitorium  of  Saillard,  the  Deputy  of  the  Public  Prosecutor, 
viewed  the  whole  matter  simply  as  a  blunder.  Hence  the  ques- 
tion, he  maintained,  is  not  whether  Madame  Hahnemann  under- 


470  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

stands  Homoeopathy,  or  understands  it  better  than  all  others, 
but  whether  she  has  a  legal  diploma?  The  American  diploma 
was  not  such;  and  the  law  makes  no  distinction  between  medi- 
cine in  general  and  Homoeopathy.  It  was  perfectly  clear  from 
the  testimony  of  physicians  that  Madame  Hahnemann  practiced 
medicine  daily;  that  Madame  Broggi  was  examined  by  her,  and 
that  Madame  Hahnemann  prescribed  for  Madame  Broggi,  and 
that  Madame  Hahnemann  visited  the  houses  of  patients  in  Ver- 
sailles without  being  accompanied  by  Dr.  Deleau.  The  Deputy 
declared  that  both  physicians  are  persons  thrust  into  the  case  in 
order  to  preserve  the  appearance  of  law.  The  whole  requisito- 
rium,  which  is  not  without  a  sarcastic  side-cut,  shows  up  the 
testimony  of  the  three  interested  parties  in  all  its  nakedness. 
The  pleading  of  the  defendant's  counsel,  M.  Chaix  d'Est  Ange, 
is  one  of  those  masterpieces  of  our  lawyers  who  know  how  to 
bring  assistance  to  their  client  from  every  nook  and  corner  of 
expediency.  While  the  public  prosecutor  did  not  meddle  with 
Homoeopathy,  Chaix  d'Est  Ange  made  a  medical  harangue. 
He  took  the  field  against  the  old  system  of  medicine,  cited  witty 
and  ingenious  passages  from  the  writings  of  both  the  Old  and 
New  School  of  practitioners,  and  gave  an  epitome  of  Hahnemann's 
life  and  writings  and  of  Homoeopathy  in  general,  just  as  a  Hom- 
oeopathist  would  have  composed  it. 

"A  lawyer's  defence  of  a  persecuted  woman  is  not  seen  every 
day.  Moreover  a  Frenchman  is  polite,  and  so  there  was  no  lack 
of  eulogy  of  Madame  Hahnemann;  poems  composed  about  her 
were  produced  in  court,  and  letters  were  read  in  which  the  whole 
talk  was  about  her  tall  and  commanding  figure  and  agreeable 
manners,  as  well  as  her  accomplishments  and  intellectual  attain- 
ments. 

"As  regards  Madame  Hahnemann's  practice  of  medicine,  her 
counsel  added  that  after  the  death  of  Hahnemann,  the  Reformer 
of  Medicine,  his  clients  applied  to  the  widow,  who  had  received 
from  her  husband  all  his  knowledge,  and  that  she  always  treated 
them  without  taking  any  remuneration;  and  he  remarked  that 
Madame  Broggi  had  suffered  from  aneurism  of  the  heart,  as  was 
testified  to  by  Drs.  Deleau  and  Croserio;  that  the  physician  who 
was  sent  for  found  her  dead,  and  that  besides  this  Madame 
Broggi' s  condition  had  improved,  and  for  this  the  patient  had  at 
one  time  fallen  on  her  knees  before  Madame  Hahnemann  and 


TRIAL  OF  MADAME  HAHNEMANN.  47 1 

entreated  her  to  accept  a  ring.  Madame  Hahnemann  refused  to 
accept  the  ring  which  the  would-be  donor  wished  to  place  on 
her  finger.  The  words,  'To  my  angel,'  were  inscribed  in  it. 
The  lawyer  exhibited  the  ring  which  was  worth  about  forty  or 
fifty  francs.  The  letters  which  he  read  in  his  client's  favor  fill 
more  than  twelve  pages.  Drs.  Deleau  and  Croserio  had  been 
recommended  to  the  sick  by  Madame  Hahnemann  because  they 
adhered  more  faithfully  to  the  Hahnemannian  doctrine  than  the 
■other  physicians.  The  members  of  the  then  existing  Homoeo- 
pathic Society  could  so  much  the  rather  bear  this  reproach  be- 
cause it  depended  upon  the  attainment  of  a  definite  purpose, 
which  Madame  Hahnemann  was  carrying  out. 

"  Chaix  d'Est-Ange  argued  that  Madame  Hahnemann  was  per- 
forming the  most  unselfish  of  human  duties,  that  it  would  be  an 
act  of  impiety  to  condemn  her,  and  that  she  had  been  summoned 
before  the  Court  purely  out  of  a  feeling  of  jealousy  or  envy  on 
the  part  of  the  physicians  of  the  old  school.  Madame  Hahne- 
mann waived  the  privilege  of  making  any  further  explanations, 
■and  the  Public  Prosecutor  then  replied  to  the  counsel  for  the 
■defence  in  a  speech  of  two  hours  duration.  He  kept  in  the  fore- 
ground the  fact  that  only  Madame  Hahnemann  had  attended 
Madame  Broggi,  and  that  she  generally  practiced  medicine,  for 
the  two  physicians  played  a  subordinate  role  in  the  consultation 
office  of  Madame  Hahnemann,  they  being  mere  'men  of  straw.' 
The  Public  Prosecutor  repeatedly  broadened  his  accusation  by 
charging  illegal  practice  of  pharmacy,  since  Lethiere  was  not  an 
apothecary  and  Madame  Hahnemann  had  delivered  or  dispensed 
the  medicines. 

"  The  clever  rejoinder  of  the  defendant's  lawyer  was  of  no 
avail,  and  Madame  Hahnemann  was  fined  one  hundred  francs  for 
illegal  practice  of  medicine  and  pharmacy  and  adjudged  to  pay 
the  costs.  Thus  the  trial  ended.  Every  person  visiting  Paris 
■can  judge  for  himself  whether  Madame  Hahnemann  has  ceased 
to  practice  medicine." 

The  next  note,  in  the  Hygea,  is  as  follows:  "  Paris,  March  i 
(1848).  The  overthrow  of  the  first  heartless,  but  now  headless, 
July  Monarchy,  may  produce  a  very  important  change  in  the  con- 
dition of  Homoeopathy.  Orfila,  the  Dean  of  the  Medical  Faculty 
and  the  bitter  enemy  of  Homoeopathy,  has  taken  his  departure, 
and  five  members  of  the  Provisional   Government,   Eamartine, 


472  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

Bethtuond,  Marie,  Cremieux  and  Louis  Blanc,  have  for  years  been 
among  the  clientage  of  Homoeopathic  physicians." 

Madame  Hahnemann,  in  the  defence  at  her  trial,  stated  that  she 
was  the  possessor  of  a  diploma  from  the  North  American  Academy 
of  the  Homoeopathic  Healing  Art,  of  Allentown,  Pa.  We  find  by 
a  letter,  written  in  1841  to  some  one  of  the  members  of  that 
Faculty,  which  has  been  previously  quoted,  that  Hahnemann 
asked  this  favor  and  honor  for  his  wife,  and  in  a  letter  to  Hering^ 
in  1842,  he  again  speaks  of  this  diploma  as  follows:* 

''  Dear  Friend  and  Colleag2ie :  At  the  end  of  October  of  last 
5'ear  I  wrote  you  a  long  letter  about  my  beloved  wife  Melanie,  in 
which  I  stated  to  you  the  reasons  that  caused  me  earnestly  to 
wish  to  obtain  for  her.  by  your  kindness,  as  soon  as  possible,  a 
diploma  as  Doctor  of  Homoeopathic  NLedicine  from  the  Academy 
at  Allentown.  In  your  answer  of  19th  of  July,  1841,  you  were 
so  good  as  to  approve  of  my  request  and  to  promise  a  speedy 
compliance  with  it. 

"  I  now  beg  of  you  to  write  as  soon  as  possible  about  it,  for  I 
cannot  imagine  to  what  I  am  to  attribute  your  silence, 
"Your  most  devoted  friend, 

"  Samuel  Hahnemann." 

It  appears  from  this  that  the  diploma  was  not  granted  until 
some  time  in  1842.  Now  the  Allentown  Academy  was  not  in 
active  operation  in  1842,  and  the  diploma  must  have  been  sent 
to  the  lady  by  the  members  of  the  Faculty  after  the  School  of 
Medicine  was  discontinued. 

It  may  be  mentioned  that  at  this  time  Madame  Hahnemann 
resided  at  No.  48  Rue  de  Clichy. 

With  the  change  in  the  Government  there  was  no  more  trouble, 
and  Madame  Hahnemann  continued  her  professional  life  undis- 
turbed. Perhaps  no  better  glimpse  of  this  life  can  be  given  than 
to  publish  the  following  interview:  y 

Dr.  I.  T.  Talbot,  of  Boston,  says:  "  In  the  winter  of  1854-55  I 
called  upon  Madame  Hahnemann.  On  my  first  visit  I  learned 
that  she  was  at  her  country  house,  to  be  absent  two  weeks. 
The  second  time  I  was  more  fortunate,  and  on  sending  up  my 
card  as  from  America  I  was  shown  into  a  spacious,  but  rather 
dreary  and  scantily  furnished  reception  room,  the  principal  orna- 

*  Hem.  World,  Vol.  xxvi.,  p.  120. 
^N.  E.  Med.  Gazette,  Vol.  ix.,  p.  So. 


VISIT   OF   DR.    I.    T.    TAI.BOT.  473 

meut  of  which,  aside  from  the  mirrors  and  clock,  the  constant 
furniture  of  Parisian  rooms,  was  a  colossal  marble  bust  of  Hahne- 
mann, by  David.  It  was  taken  in  the  last  year  of  his  life,  and 
undoubtedly  idealized  its  subject.  In  a  few  moments  a  lady  of 
middle  age  entered  the  room.  She  was  tall  and  quite  graceful; 
her  hair  slightly  grey  and  in  curls;  her  forehead  high  and  intel- 
lectual. Her  countenance  impressed  me  as  cold  and  austere,  and 
her  manner  as  courtly  and  forbidding.  It  was  Madame  Hahne- 
mann. With  her  first  salutation  it  was  easy  to  see  that  she  was 
a  lady  of  unusual  accomplishments  and  accustomed  to  meet 
strangers. 

"When  I  referred  to  her  illustrious  husband  and  to  the  wide 
acceptance  of  his  doctrines  in  America  her  coldness  and  austerity 
immediately  vanished,  and  she  became  an  interested  and  genial 
listener. 

"She  spoke  freely  and  enthusiastically  of.  Hahnemann,  and 
•said  that  his  mind  grew  clearer  and  his  reasoning  powers  more 
comprehensive  in  the  last  years  of  his  life. 

"When  it  was  known  that  Hahnemann  was  in  Paris,  many 
visited  her  residence  to  see  him,  and  here  her  devotion  to  him 
and  his  interests  is  unquestioned.  She  acted  as  his  interpreter, 
scribe,  apothecary  and  business  agent;  and  it  is  fair  to  assume 
that  his  life  was  lengthened  by  her  constant,  unwearying  atten- 
tions. 'When  he  died,'  said  she,  'I  felt  that  my  mission  was 
•ended.'  But  it  seems  that  old  patients  came  to  her,  knowing 
that  she  had  a  record  of  their  cases  as  treated  by  Hahnemann, 
and  new  ones,  hoping  through  her  to  derive  some  benefit  from 
his  transcendent  ability.  Eleven  years  had  passed  since  his 
death,  but  I  did  not  learn  that  she  then  engaged  largely  in  pro- 
fessional work.  Since  that  time,  however,  her  practice  has  been 
quite  extensive." 


474  LIFE   OF   HAHNEMANN. 


CHAPTER  LXXXVII. 

LETTER  TO  DR.  NICHOLS,  REGARDING  MADAME   HAHNEMANN,   BY 
A  FORMER  PATIENT — VISIT  OF  DR.  NEIDHARD. 

The  following  letter  is  addressed  to  Dr.  Nichols,  the  editor  of 
the  New  Engla^id  Medical  Gazette,  by  a  lady  who  had  known 
Madame  Hahnemann,  and  at  that  time  (1874)  resided  in  Boston:* 

''Dear  Sir:  It  gives  me  pleasure  to  furnish  at  your  request,  for 
the  Gazette,  some  reminiscences  of  Madame  Hahnemann. 

"  It  was  my  good  fortune  to  meet  her  first  during  the  autumn 
of  1867.  Having  need  of  a  physician,  I  called  at  the  apartment 
of  Dr.  Boenninghausen,  only  to  learn  that  he  was  in  Germany 
and  Madame  Hahnemann  was  treating  his  patients  meanwhile. 
I  had  not  known  until  then  that  the  celebrated  widow  was  liv- 
ing; but  I  now  very  gladly  left  a  request  that  she  would  call  at 
our  rooms  as  soon  as  possible;  two  of  my  friends  had  been  sud- 
denly seized  with  violent  fever.  I  shall  never  forget  the  untir- 
ing devotion  and  rare  skill  of  Madame  Hahnemann  in  the 
management  of  their  cases.  Once  we  had  occasion  to  call  her  at 
midnight.  We  were  au  quatrieme  (without  an  elevator),  and  as 
she  came  climbing  up  the  many  stairs  I  could  not  resist  a  half 
apology  for  her  supposed  fatigue.  She  turned  quickly  toward 
me,  her  expressive  face  crowned  with  its  glory  of  silver  white 
hair  and  beaming  with  life  and  vigor,  and,  with  the  bright 
naivete  of  a  young  girl,  said,  Je  suis  encore  jezine. 

"  We  all  became  strongly  attached  to  her  during  those  weeks 
of  anxious  watching;  and  when  we  were  obliged  to  leave  Paris 
she  took  under  her  especial  care  our  brother,  who  remained  be- 
hind, called  herself  his  mother,  and  put  forth  all  her  skill  and 
tenderness  to  avert  from  him  any  ill  consequences  of  the  fearful 
fever  from  which  he  was  just  emerging.  I  have  thought  I  could 
do  no  better  than  to  give  you  a  few  extracts  from  his  letters 
written  to  me  after  my  return  home. 

"  Madame  seemed  disappointed  when  I  told  her  how  sick  J 

was,  in  spite  of  her  medicines,  and  said  he  ought,  when  he  got 
home,  to  put  himself  under  the  care  of  a  good  physician,  a 
*N.  E.  Medical  Gazette,  Vol.  ix.,  p.  81.  (February,  1874.) 


LETTER    TO    DR.    NICHOLS.  475 

Hahnemannian,  and  have  those  tendencies  thoroughly  cured. 
She  has  the  largest  notions  of  what  Homoeopathy  can  do,  even 
in  eradicating  evil  tendencies,  and  leaving  one,  ganz gesund. 
Even  inherited  ills  have  no  right  to  exist;  it  may  take  time  to  re- 
move them,  but  the  result  is  certain.  She  always  had  confirmed 
headaches  till  she  knew  Hahnemann,  and  he  cured  her  in  three 
years.  I  see  her  every  week.  She  proposes  to  give  me  a  sound 
head. 

"I  called  on  Madame  a  few  days  ago  and  spent  an  hour  with 
her.  Thinking  I  was  to  leave  at  once  for  Germany,  she  had 
hunted  up  an  old  photograph  of  herself  for  me.  But  it  was  very 
bad,  had  none  of  her  benevolence;  and  at  her  promise  to  have 
some  new  ones  taken  soon  and  give  me  one,  I  did  not  take  it. 
She  told  me  much  of  her  own  life  and  that  of  her  husband.  She 
is  French  and  a  Catholic;  she  was  born  in  Paris;  became  early 
interested  in  medicine,  and  determined  to  study. 

"Through  the  exertions  of  a  friend  she  was  able,  when  quite  a 
girl,  to  be  admitted  to  the  dissecting- rooms  of  the  medical  school, 
at  times  when  the  students  were  not  there,  and  in  some  way 
which  I  did  not  understand  she  got  the  benefit  of  the  lectures, 
too.  For  many  years  she  studied  in  this  way,  and  went  over  the 
same  course  which  all  Allopathic  students  take  for  their  degree. 
But  she  said  the  more  she  studied,  the  more  unsatisfactory  medi- 
cine became.  It  was  a  mirage.  Then  she  met  Hahnemann; 
what  he  told  her  made  all  plain;  he  recognized  her  doubts  and 
showed  the  truths  to  which  they  pointed. 

"Hahnemann  was  then  eighty,  and  she  a  girl,  I  don't  know 
how  old.  He  told  her  he  had  all  his  life  looked  for  a  woman,  as 
Diogenes  did  for  a  man,  and  that  he  found  what  he  sought  in 
her.  She  married  him,  and  as  she  expressed  it,  '  I  was  a  servant 
to  him,  and  his  copyist,  and  kept  his  house,  and  studied  with 
him,  and  it  was  paradise.'  I  wish  you  could  have  seen  the  dear 
old  lady's  enthusiasm.  '  He  was  the  most  godlike  man,'  she 
said.  'No  one  ever  had  such  a  face  or  character.'  I  said, 
'  Then  he  was  not  old  when  you  married  him?'  'No,'  said  she, 
*he  had  never  drunk  wine,  ale,  cofiee  nor  tea;  had  never  sinned 
against  his  body  in  any  way,  and  was  as  fresh  and  young  at 
eighty  as  most  men  twenty- five  years  younger.' 

"She  showed  me  an  enormous  book,  giving  the  symptoms  for 
Homoeopathic  medicines  then  known,  which  she  said  she  and 


476  LIFE   OF    HAHNEMANN. 

her  husband  had  compiled  entirely  by  experiments  on  them- 
selves. I  must  come  and  see  her  every  three  or  four  days  and 
let  her  talk  of  Hahnemann.  I  might  read  of  him  in  books,  but 
no  one  could  tell  me  what  he  was  as  she  could.  I  promised  to 
come  often,  and  she  said  she  wished  to  introduce  me  to  her  son- 
in-law  and  daughter. 

"Madame  gives  me  sanction  to  spend  a  week  or  two  in  Lon- 
don; provides  me  with  medicines;  will  see  me  when  I  return, 
and  if  I  have  gained  as  much  as  I  ought,  will  let  me  go  back  to 
study.  Her  care  has  been  the  wisest  and  kindest.  She  gladly 
makes  clear  to  me  the  difficult  problems  of  her  husband's  doc- 
trines. 

"Her  description  the  other  day  of  their  wedded  Homoeopathic 
bliss  was  amusing.  She  told  of  their  labors  together,  and  how 
Hahnemann  had  no  secrets  apart  from  her,  and  how  '  all  day  we 
worked  at  the  same  table,  and  at  night  his  bed  was  here,  mine 
there,  and  when  we  waked  in  the  night  our  talk  was  of  medicine. 
I  didn't  marry  him  for  his  property,  but  for  enthusiasm.' 

"He  was  rich,  she  his  second  wife;  and  the  law  allows  the 
wife,  on  the  husband's  death,  half  the  property,  the  other  half 
goes  to  the  children.  She  gave  up  her  half  to  the  children  by 
the  previous  marriage,  and  she  said:  'You  would  think  they 
would  have  been  grateful,  wouldn't  you?  but  they  were  not.' 
This  is  the  only  allusion  she  has  ever  made  to  me  with  reference 
to  the  attacks  upon  her." 

Dr.  Neidhard,  in  an  address  before  the  Philadelphia  County 
Homoeopathic  Medical  Society  in  1869,  mentions  a  visit  to 
Madame  Hahnemann: 

"  During  my  stay  in  Paris  I  visited  Madame  Hahnemann  sev- 
eral times,  and  was  very  kindly  received.  She  is  now  a  lady  of 
venerable  aspect,  having  a  high  forehead  and  pale  complexion. 
She  does  not  seem  to  be  on  good  terms  with  the  Homoeopathic 
physicians  of  Paris.  'These  men,' she  said,  'think  that  because 
they  are  called  doctors  they  know  something  of  medical  science 
and  the  cure  of  diseases,  but  they  know  nothing.' 

"Tears  came  into  her  eyes  when  she  spoke  of  Hahnemann. 
She  does  not  practice  Homoeopathy  now.  Dr.  Boenninghausen, 
the  son  of  the  late  celebrated  Von  Boenninghausen,  has  married 
a  relation*  of  Madame  Hahnemann,  and  has  his  office  at  Madame 
Hahnemann's  house. 
*  Her  adopted  daughter. 


RIVAL    EDITIONS    OF   THE    ORGANON.  477 

"Madame  Hahnemann  spoke  a  great  deal  of  the  purity  of 
Homoeopathy  and  the  malpractice  of  many  Parisian  Homoeo- 
pathic physicians,  mentioning  a  case  where  one  of  them  gave 
fifty  drops  oi  Aconite  6th  in  one  dose.  Hahnemann,  she  said, 
deeply  regretted,  before  his  death,  the  abandonment  by  so  many 
physicians  of  his  wise  and  well  tried  maxims. 

"Hahnemann's  '  Organon  '  will  appear  this  year.  The  rea- 
son of  its  non-appearance  is  a  change  of  editors.  It  was  very 
difiicult  to  find  a  reliable  editor.  Dr.  Stapf's  letters  to  Hahne- 
mann will  also  be  published  shortly. 

"  For  our  Philadelphia  hospital  fair  Madame  Hahnemann  had 
promised  to  give  me  a  silver  cup  from  which  Hahnemann  drank 
his  cocoa  every  morning.  On  leaving  Paris,  when  I  claimed  my 
prize,  reminding  her  of  the  promise,  she  excused  herself  on  the 
ground  of  the  family  objecting  to  part  with  it. 

"As  to  the  insinuation  made  by  some  that  Hahnemann  be- 
came childish  during  his  last  years  she  strongly  denied  it.  In- 
stead of  losing  his  memory  and  judgment,  he  was,  during  the 
last  years  of  his  life,  more  enlightened  and  deeply  intelligent  than 
ever."* 


CHAPTER  LXXXVIII. 

RIVAL  EDITIONS  OF  THE  "  ORGANON  " — BY  LUTZE — SUSS-HAHNE- 
MANN — MADAME    HAHNEMANN — OPINIONS  OF  THE   PRO- 
FESSION. 

The  intended  publication  of  a  new  edition  of  the  "Organon," 
of  which  Dr.  Neidhard  speaks,  resulted  from  the  following  cir- 
cumstances: 

When  Hahnemann  died  he  left,  in  his  own  handwriting, 
numerous  annotations  in  a  copy  of  the  last  edition  of  the 
"Organon"  for  a  sixth  edition,  in  which  it  is  presumed  he  had 
propounded  his  later  medical  opinions.  Although  it  was  known 
by  the  friends  of  Hahnemann  that  such  a  book  existed,  it  was 
not  given  to  the  world.  As  may  be  seen,  Croserio  in  his  letter 
mentions  this  fact  and   it  is  mentioned  by  others.     After  his 

*  "Homoeopathy  in  France,  Germany  and  England  in  the  year  1869," 


478  LIFE   OF    HAHNEMANN. 

death  the  MSS.  remained  in  the  hands  of  Madame  Hahnemann 
and  nothing  was  done  about  publishing  it.  In  1865  Dr.  Arthur 
Lutze  published  at  Coethen  a  sixth  edition  of  the  "Organon," 
interpolated  with  certain  notes  and  suggestions  of  his  own.  He 
added  the  following  new  paragraph,  advising  the  use  of  double 
and  triple  remedies:* 

"  Section  274  b.  There  are  several  compound  cases  of  disease 
in  which  the  administration  of  a  double  remed}'  is  perfectly 
Homoeopathic  and  truly  rational;  where,  for  instance,  each  of 
two  medicines  appears  suited  for  the  case  of  disease,  but  each 
from  a  different  side;  or  where  the  case  of  disease  depends  on 
more  than  one  of  the  three  radical  causes  of  chronic  diseases  dis- 
covered by  me,  as  when  in  addition  to  psora  we  have  to  do  with 
syphilis  or  sycosis  also.  Just  as  in  very  rapid  acute  diseases  I 
give  two  or  three  of  the  most  appropriate  remedies  in  alterna- 
tion; i.  e.,  in  cholera,  Cuprum  and  Veratrtim ;  or  in  croup, 
Acojtite,  Hepar  siclph.  and  Spongia  ;  so  in  chronic  diseases  I  may 
give  together  two  well-indicated  Homoeopathic  remedies  acting 
from  different  sides,  in  the  smallest  dose.  I  must  here  deprecate 
most  distinctly  all  thoughtless  mixtures  or  frivolous  choice  of 
two  medicines,  which  would  be  analogous  to  Allopathic  poly- 
pharmacy. I  must  also  once  again  particularly  insist  that  such 
rightly  chosen  Homoeopathic  double  remedies  must  only  be 
given  in  the  most  highly  potentized  and  attenuated  doses." 

The  following  foot-note  occurs  on  page  267  of  Lutze's 
"Organon:"  "This  is  the  paragraph  intended  by  our  Master 
for  the  fifth  edition  of  the  'Organon,'  but  suppressed  by  the 
senselessness  of  others,  which  I  had  the  good  fortune  to  discover, 
and  which  I  deem  it  my  duty  to  give  to  the  world  in  this  place, 
after  having  already  published  a  chapter  on  the  double  remedies 
in  my  '  Lehrbuch  der  Homoopathie.'  Dr.  Julius  Aegidi,  at  that 
time  physician  in  ordinary  to  the  Princess  Frederica  of  Prussia, 
in  Dusseldorf,  sent  Hahnemann  the  report  of  two  hundred  and 
thirty-three  cases  of  cures  effected  by  double  remedies,  and  the 
reply  of  this  great  thinker,  dated  Coethen,  15th  of  June,  1833, 
of  which  I  possess  the  original,  runs  thus: 

"  'Dear  Friend  and  Colleagne  :  Do  not  think  that  I  am  capable 
of  rejecting  any  good  thing  from  prejudice,  or  because  it  might 
cause  alterations  in  my  doctrine.     My  sole  desire  is  for  truth, 

*  Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  xxiii.,  p.  413;  also  Lutze's  "Organon." 


RIVAL    EDITIONS    OF   THE   ORGANON.  479 

and  I  believe  yours  is  also.  Hence  I  am  delighted  that  such  a 
happy  idea  has  occurred  to  you,  and  that  you  have  kept  it 
within  its  necessary  limits;  that  two  medicinal  substances  (in 
smallest  dose,  or  by  olfaction)  should  be  given  together  only  in 
a  case  where  both  seem  Homoeopathically  suitable,  but  each 
from  a  diflferent  side.  Under  such  circumstances  the  procedure 
is  so  consonant  with  the  requirements  of  our  art  that  nothing 
can  be  urged  against  it;  on  the  contrary.  Homoeopathy  must  be 
congratulated  on  your  discovery.  I  myself  will  take  the  first 
opportunity  of  putting  it  in  practice,  and  I  have  no  doubt  that 
von  Boenninghausen  is  completely  of  our  opinion  and  acts 
accordingly.  I  think,  too,  that  both  remedies  should  be  given 
together;  just  as  we  take  Sulphur  and  Calcarea  together  when 
we  cause  our  patients  to  take  or  smell  Hepar  siUph.  or  Sulphur 
and  Mercury  when  they  take  or  smell  Cinnabar.  Permit  me, 
then,  to  give  your  discovery  to  the  world  in  the  fifth  edition  of 
the  '  Organon,'  which  will  soon  be  published.  Until  then,  how- 
ever, I  beg  you  to  keep  all  to  yourself,  and  try  to  get  Mr.  Jahr, 
whom  I  greatly  esteem,  to  do  the  like.  At  the  same  time  I 
there  protest  and  earnestly  warn  against  all  abuse  of  the  practice 
by  a  frivolous  choice  of  two  medicines  to  be  used  in  combination. 
" '  Yours  sincerely, 

"'Samuel  Hahnemann.'" 

lyUtze  continues:  "After  State  Councillor  Dr.  von  Boenning- 
hausen, whose  name  has  been  several  times  honorably  men- 
tioned in  this  book,  and  our  Master  himself  had  tested  this 
practice  and  found  it  good,  he  (Hahnemann)  wrote  the  following 
letter,  the  original  of  which  I  also  possess,  to  Dr.  Aegidi,  dated 
19th  August,  1833:  'I  have  devoted  a  special  paragraph  in  the 
fifth  edition  of  the  "Organon"  to  your  discovery  of  the  adminis- 
tration of  double  remedies.  I  sent  the  manuscript  yesterday 
evening  to  Arnold  and  enjoined  him  to  print  it  soon  and  put  the 
steel  engraving  of  my  portrait  as  a  frontispiece.  The  race  for 
priority  is  anxiously  pursued.  Thirty  years  ago  I  was  weak 
enough  to  contend  for  it. 

"'But  for  a  long  time  past  my  only  wish  is  that  the  world 
should  gain  the  best,  the  most  useful  truth,  let  it  come  from  me 
or  from  any  other.' 

"The  foregoing  paragraph  is  sanctioned  by  these  expressions 
of  the  now  enlightened  spirit.     In  the  Congress  of  Homoeopathic 


480  LIFE  OF   HAHNEMANN. 

medical  men  which  took  place  soon  afterwards  on  the  loth  of 
August,  1833,  the  Master  brought  this  new  discovery  before  his 
disciples,  but  in  place  of  finding  willing  listeners,  he  encoun- 
tered opposition.  The  narrow  mindedness  and  ignorance  of  these 
men  went  so  far  as  to  compare  this  true  Homoeopathic  discovery 
to  the  polypharmacy  of  Allopathy,  and  they  drew  such  a  dismal 
picture  to  the  hoary  Master  of  the  harm  he  would  do  to  his  doc- 
trine thereby,  that  he  allowed  himself  to  be  persuaded  to  recall 
the  paragraph  he  had  already  sent  to  the  printer,  which  an  eager 
disciple  of  not  the  purest  sort  undertook  to  do,  and  thus  the 
world  was  for  many  years  deprived  of  this  important  discovery." 

Dr.  Lutze  continues  with  examples  of  this  double  remedy,  and 
signs  his  name  at  the  end.  In  an  editorial  in  the  British  Joiw^ial 
of  Homoeopathy,  of  Jul3^  1865,  the  author  says  that  the  letters 
printed  by  Lutze  are  no  doubt  genuine  and  thus  explains  the 
matter: 

Dr.  Aegidi  proposed  to  Hahnemann  to  administer  a  mixture 
of  two  highly-potentized  remedies  each  corresponding  to  differ- 
ent parts  of  the  disease.  In  the  potentized  state  the  medicines 
thus  mixed  would  be  incapable  of  chemical  reaction,  but  would 
each  act  separately  in  its  own  sphere.  Dr.  Boenninghausen  ap- 
proved of  the  idea  and  Hahnemann  was  induced  to  present  the 
matter  to  the  meeting  of  the  Central  Society  for  1833.  Hahne- 
mann was  persuaded  that  this  would  probably  lead  to  the  poly- 
pharmacy of  the  old  school,  and  he  decided  to  exclude  this 
doctrine  from  the  new  edition  of  the  "  Organon."  Hahnemann 
in  no  manner  sanctioned  alternation  after  this  time. 

Jahr  afterwards  mentioned  Aegidi's  discovery,  and  Aegidi 
answered  Jahr  in  an  article  published  in  the  Archives  for  1834. 
He  disavowed  this  method  in  1857. 

Hahnemann  recommended  alternation  of  remedies  in  the  first 
edition  of  the  "Organon."  Paragraph  145  of  this  edition  reads:* 
"It  is  only  in  some  cases  of  ancient  chronic  diseases  which  are 
liable  to  no  remarkable  alterations,  which  have  certain  fixed  and 
permanent  fundamental  symptoms,  that  two  almost  equally  ap- 
propriate Homoeopathic  remedies  may  be  successfully  employed 
in  alternation." 

He  gives  as  a  reason  that  the  number  of  remedies  at  that  time 

*" Organon  der  rationellen  Heilkuude,"  Dresden,  1810,  p.  119.  Dudg- 
eon's "Lectures  on  Homoeopathy,"  London,  1854,  p.  474. 


RIVAL   EDITIONS   OF  THE   ORG  ANON.  48 1 

proven  was  not  large  enough  to  produce  in  every  case  the  exact 
similimum.  In  the  "  Chronic  Diseases  "  Hahnemann  mentions 
certain  cases  in.  which  he  alternated  remedies  in  intermittent 
fever. 

But  it  is  very  certain  that  Hahnemann's  ideas  upon  alterna- 
tion were  different  from  those  held  by  certain  of  his  followers. 
His  were  rather  those  of  rotation. 

Hahnemann,  instead  of  recommending  alternation  in  the  fifth 
edition  of  the  "Organon,"  says  in  paragraph  272:  "In  no  case 
is  it  requisite  to  administer  more  than  one  single,  simple  medici- 
nal substance  at  one  time." 

In  a  note  he  says:  "  Some  Homoeopathists  have  made  the  ex- 
periment in  cases  where  they  deemed  one  remedy  Homoeopathi- 
cally  suitable  for  one  portion  of  the  symptoms  of  a  case  of  disease, 
and  a  second  for  another  portion,  of  administering  both  remedies 
at  the  same  or  at  almost  the  same  time;  but  I  earnestly  deprecate 
such  a  hazardous  experiment,  which  can  never  be  necessary, 
though  it  may  sometimes  seem  to  be  of  use."  Paragraphs  273, 
274  also  treat  of  this  matter. 

Whatever  Hahnemann  wrote  to  Lutze  or  to  Aegidi,  or  in 
whatever  degree  his  spirit  of  experimentation  and  fairness  led 
him  to  discuss  the  plan  of  alternation,  it  is  very  certain  that  he 
was  not  enthusiastic  in  the  matter,  and  at  best  considered  it  a 
piakeshift  for  careful  study. 

An  interesting  article  on  alternation,  by  Dr.  Aug.  Korndoerfer, 
niay  be  found  in  the  Hahnemannian  Monthly  for  February  and 
April,  1874. 

This  so-called  sixth  edition  of  the  "Organon,"  edited  and 
published  by  Lutze,  contains  many  alterations  from  the  original 
text,  and  many  important  parts  are  also  suppressed.  It  called 
forth  the  opposition  of  the  whole  German  Homoeopathic  Press 
and  the  German  Homoeopathic  Societies  protested  against  such  a 
liberty  on  the  part  of  Dr.  Lutze. 

A  long  article  appeared  in  the  Allgemeine  horn.  Zeitmig,  Vol. 
Ixx.  CApril  10,  1865),  declaring  the  book  to  be  spurious  and 
apochryphal  and  utterly  repudiating  it.  This  is  signed  by  Drs. 
Bolle,  Hirschel,  Meyer,  CI.  Muller. 

In  1857  Dr.  Aegidi  had  repudiated,  in  the  Allgemeine  Zeitung^ 
the  practice  of  alternation,  although  in  his  "Lehrbuch,"  in 
i860,  Lutze  quoted  him  in  its  favor. 


4S2  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

But  on  the  appearance  of  this  "Organon"  both  Dr.  Aegidi  and 
Dr.  Boenninghausen  denied  Lutze's  assertions,  as  follows:* 

"Explanation. — The  protest  of  the  honored  representatives 
of  the  Homoeopathic  press,  of  Germany,  against  the  alleged  sixth 
edition  of  the  "Organon  of  the  Healing  Art,"  published  in  the 
Allg.  horn.  Zeitung  of  April  10,  Hahnemann's  birthday,  having 
embraced  the  mention  of  my  name,  yet  having  omitted  to  men- 
tion that  I  also  participate  in  the  conviction  in  behalf  of  which 
the  signers  of  the  protest  contend,  that,  years  ago,  I  loudly  and 
publicly  made  known  my  disapproval  of  the  administration  of  so- 
called  double  remedies,  as  an  abuse  and  a  mischievous  proceed- 
ing, I  find  myself  compelled  to  publish  my  explanation  as  it 
originally  appeared  in  the  Allg.  horn.  Zeitung,  54,  12  (May  18, 
1857),  and  thence  copied  in  the  Neue  Zeitschrift  fur  Homoopath- 
ische  Klinik,  11,  12  (June  15,  1857).  It  was  in  the  following 
language: 

"The  undersigned  finds  himself  compelled  to  join  his  voice  in 
the  reproaches  that  have  been  made,  particularly  of  late,  against 
the  Homoeopathic  administration  of  so-called  double  remedies  so 
much  the  more,  inasmuch  as  it  is  he  who  is  charged  with  having 
taken  the  initiative  in  this  mode  of  acting  which  is  the  subject 
of  reprobation.  Entirely  agreeing  with  all  the  arguments  ad- 
duced against  it  by  competent  persons  and  the  refutation  of 
which  must  be  impossible,  the  undersigned  is  compelled  to  make 
known  emphatically  and  publicly  his  decided  disapproval  of  such 
an  abuse  of  our  excellent  and  most  serviceable  art,  as  has  been 
lately  recommended  in  an  apparently  systematic  manner  and  as 
a  rule;  to  the  end,  that  persons  may  forbear  to  take  his  supposed 
authority,  as  a  sanction  of  a  mode  of  treatment  which,  even  as 
he  (Stapf's  Archives,  1834,  14)  thought  he  might  recommend  a 
modification  of  it  for  very  rare  and  exceptional  cases,  is  very  far 
from  being  the  abuse  and  mischief  which  it  is  now  made  and  be- 
ing made. 

"I  add  to  this  that  I  thoroughly  agree  with  the  contents  of 
the  above-mentioned  protest;  and  that,  in  my  opinion,  the  prac- 
tice therein  rebuked  is  not  dealt  with  even  as  severely  as  in  the 
interests  of  our  science  it  should  have  been. 

"Aegidi. 

"  Freienwald,  April  12,  186^.'' 

*  Am.  Horn.  Review,  N.  Y.,  Vol.  v.,  p.  562. 


RIVAL   EDITIONS    OP   THE   ORGANON.  483 

Dr.  Boenninghausen  wrote  to  Dr.  Carroll  Dunham  regarding 
this  affair  as  follows: 

"MuNSTER,  March  25,  1865. 
"  To  Dr.  Carroll  Dunham,  New  York. 

"■My  Very  Dear  Friend  and  Colleague :  I  have  just  to  day- 
received  your  letter  of  the  2d  instant.  The  passage  which  you 
quote  concerning  the  'combined  doses  containing  two  different 
remedies'  imposes  on  me  the  duty  of  replying  without  a  moment's 
delay. 

"It  is  true  that  during  the  years  1832  and  1833,  at  the  in- 
stance of  Dr.  Aegidi,  I  made  some  experiments  with  combined 
doses,  that  the  results  were  sometimes  surprising,  and  that  I 
spoke  of  the  circumstance  to  Hahnemann,  who  after  some  ex- 
periments made  by  himself  had  entertained  for  awhile  the  idea 
of  alluding  to  the  matter  in  the  fifth  edition  of  the  '  Organon,' 
which  he  was  preparing  in  1833.  But  this  novelty  appeared  too 
dangerous  for  the  new  method  of  cure,  and  it  was  I  who  induced 
Hahnemann  to  express  his  disapproval  of  it  in  the  fifth  edition 
of  the  "Organon,"  1833,  in  the  note  to  paragraph  272.  Since 
this  period  neither  Hahnemann  nor  myself  have  made  further 
use  of  these  combined  doses.  Dr.  Aegidi  was  not  long  in 
abandoning  this  method,  which  resembles  too  closely  the  pro- 
cedures of  Allopathy,  opening  the  way  to  a  relapse  from  the 
precious  law  of  simplicity,  a  method,  too,  which  is  becoming 
every  day  more  entirely  superfluous  from  the  augmentation  of 
our  Materia  Medica. 

"If,  consequently,  in  our  day,  a  Homoeopathician  takes  it  into 
his  head  to  act  according  to  experiments  made  thirty  years  ago, 
in  the  infancy  of  our  science,  and  subsequently  rebuked  by 
unanimous  vote,  he  clearly  walks  backwards,  like  a  crab,  and 
shows  that  he  has  not  kept  up  with  nor  followed  the  progress  of 
science. 

"Supposing  that  it  may  interest  you  to  know  the  origin  of  the 
above-mentioned  method,  I  add  the  following:  There  was  about 
this  time  (1832  and  1833),  at  Cologne,  an  old  physician  named 
Dr.  Stoll,  himself  a  constant  invalid  and  hypochondriac,  who, 
distrusting  the  old  medical  doctrine,  but  having  only  a  super- 
ficial smattering  of  Homoeopathy,  had  conceived  the  idea  of 
dividing  the  remedies  into  two  classes,  the  one  of  which  should 
act  upon  the  body  and  the  other  on  the  soul.     He  thought  that 


484  LIFK   OP   HAHNEMANN. 

these  two  kinds  of  medicine  should  be  combined  in  a  prescription 
in  order  to  supplement  each  other. 

"  His  method  making  some  noise  in  Cologne,  and  Dr.  Aegidi, 
then  at  Dusseldprf,  having  in  vain  endeavored  to  discover  the 
essential  secret  of  this  novelty,  the  latter  induced  me  to  endeavor 
to  find  it  out.  I  succeeded  in  doing  so.  Although  the  idea  of 
Dr.  StoU  was  utterly  devoid  of  foundation,  it  nevertheless  in- 
duced us  to  make  experiments  in  another  way;  namely,  that 
above  recited,  but  which,  as  I  said  before,  was  utterly  rejected 
long,  long  ago.  "  Yours  very  sincerely, 

"  C.   VON  BCENNINGHAUSKN." 

The  Homoeopathic  Medical  College  of  Pennsylvania  held  a 
meeting  on  May  20,  1865,  and  entered  a  solemn  protest  against 
Lutze's  book,  which  was  declared  "to  be  mutilated  and  per- 
verted." 

The  Homoeopathic  profession  in  Europe  and  America  refused 
to  have  anything  to  do  with  I^utze's  edition  of  Hahnemann's. 
"  Organon." 


CHAPTER  I.XXXIX. 

THE   RIVAL    "ORGANONS"    CONTINUED. 

Not  long  after  this  an  advertisement  appeared  in  the  German 
journals  of  a  forthcoming  sixth  edition  of  the  "Organon,"  to- 
be  edited  by  Dr.  Suss- Hahnemann,  the  grandson  of  the  Master. 
The  preface  was  printed.  It  was  intended  to  use  the  fourth 
edition  of  the  "Organon,"  instead  of  the  fifth,  in  the  prepara- 
tion of  this  book.  The  fourth  edition  contains  many  statements 
from  Old  School  physicians  regarding  the  favorable  action  of 
medicines  Homoeopathically,  which  are  omitted  in  the  fifth 
edition. 

As  soon  as  Dr.  Suss-Hahnemann  announced  this  edition 
Madame  Hahnemann  wrote  the  following  letter  to  his  pub- 
lishers : 

"  Paris,  23d  April,  1865. 
"  Messrs.  Reichardt  and  Zander. 

''Gentlemen:  I  perceive  from  No.  14  of  the  Allgemeinc  horn. 
Zeitung,  of  3d  April,  that  your  firm  is  about  to  publish  a  new 


THE    RIVAL    ORGANONS    CONTINUED.  485 

■edition  of  Hahnemann's  'Organon,'  edited  by  Dr.  Suss,  of 
London.  I  beg  to  inform  you  that  the  exclusive  right  to  publish 
the  said  work  belongs  solely  to  me;  and  as  I  possess  the  manu- 
script sixth  edition  of  the  'Organon,'  written  by  my  late  hus- 
band's own  hand.  Dr.  Suss's  work  can  have  no  claim  whatever 
to  be  considered  genuine.  You,  as  booksellers,  are  no  doubt 
aware  of  the  stringent  laws  of  Germany  protecting  the  copyright 
of  literary  works,  and  therefore  this  notice  I  hope  will  be  suffi- 
cient to  warn  you  against  the  sale  of  Dr.  Suss's  intended  edition 
of  the  said  work. 

"I  remain,  gentlemen, 

' '  Truly  yours, 

"  Melanie  Hahnemann." 

Madame  Hahnemann  also  sent  the  following  letter  to  the 
Allgemeine  horn.  Zeitung  of  May  ist : 

"Paris,  21st  April,  1865. 
''To  THE  Editor  of  the  Allgemeine  horn.  Zeitung. 

^^ Respected  Sir :  To  my  great  astonishment  I  perceive  in  No, 
14  of  the  Allg.  horn.  Zeit.,  for  April  3d,  that  Dr.  L,utze  and  Dr. 
Suss,  of  London,  announce  the  publication  of  a  sixth,  con- 
siderably improved  and  enlarged  edition  of  Hahnemann's  'Or- 
ganon.' I  alone  have  the  right  to  publish  the  sixth  edition  of 
the  'Organon;'  I  alone  possess  the  manuscript  in  my  late 
husband's  own  handwriting  of  this  important  work;  to  me  alone 
were  communicated  all  the  improvements  which  the  author 
made  in  the  'Organon.'  Dr.  Lutze  never  saw  Hahnemann,  nor 
was  he  in  any  way  connected  with  him. 

"Dr.  Suss,  of  London,  saw  Hahnemann  twice  only;  the  first 
time  when  a  child  of  six  years  of  age,  and  afterwards,  when  a 
student  in  Leipsic,  the  day  before  the  death  of  my  husband;  it 
is,  therefore,  impossible  he  can  have  obtained  from  him  anything 
new  relating  to  Homoeopathy. 

' '  Now  that  it  is  pretended  that  something  new  is  known,  when 
it  is  intended  to  make  a  sort  of  romance  of  our  holy  'Organon,' 
now  is  the  time  to  publish  the  genuine  and  real  '  Organon,'  and 
I  shall  now  send  it  to  press.  Just  as  no  one  dares  to  improve, 
take  away  from,  or  add  to  the  Holy  Gospel  or  the  other  Holy 
Scriptures,  so  no  one  should  dare  to  make  any  alterations  in  the 
'Organon,'  the  codex  of  human  health;  it   must  remain  as  its 


486  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

author  created  it,  and   it  should  only   appear  in   its  pure,   un- 
adulterated truth  and  genuineness. 

"  I  urgently  beg  of  you  to  allow  this  letter  to  appear  without 
any  alterations  in  the  next  number  of  the  Allg.  Zeihcng. 

"Your  devotion  to  the  true  maxims  of  our  beneficent  doctrine 
and  your  sense  of  justice  will  induce  you  to  grant  me  this  favor, 
for  which  I  thank  you  beforehand  in  my  own  name  and  in  that 
of  the  true  disciples  of  Hahnemann. 

"Accept,  esteemed  doctor,  the  assurances  of  my  most  dis- 
tinguished consideration. 

"  M.  Hahnemann. 

"  5"^  Faubourg  St.  HofioreJ^ 

In  reply  to  this  letter  Dr.  Suss-Hahnemann  sent  to  the  editor 
of  the  British  Journal  of  Homoeopathy  the  following  : 

"  I  West  St.,  Finsbury  Circus,  IvOndon. 
"To  THE  EpiTORS  OF  THE  British  Journal  of  Homoeopathy . 

"  Gentlemeyi :  You  are  no  doubt  aware  that,  in  consequence  of 
my  grandfather's  German  works  having  gone  completely  out  of 
print,  I  have  considered  it  my  duty,  due  alike  to  the  memory  of 
my  departed  great  ancestor  as  to  the  cause  of  Homoeopathy,  to 
commence  a  reissue  of  his  literary  productions;  the  'Organon,' 
as  the  most  important  work,  has  been  taken  in  hand  first,  and 
my  publishers  in  Berlin  have  announced  its  publication  to  be 
shortly  completed. 

"Madame  Hahnemann  seems,  however,  to  have  taken  great 
umbrage  at  my  proceedings;  not  only  has  she  threatened  to  in- 
timidate my  publishers  by  empty  threats  of  legal  prosecutions, 
but  she  has  also  published  herself,  in  the  Allgemei?ie  horn. 
Zeitu7ig  of  May  ist,  an  article  by  which  she  unmistakably 
wishes  to  damage  and  lower  m}'-  publication  in  the  estimation  of 
my  medical  brethren.  If  the  facts  stated  by  her  had  been  correct, 
I  would  have  remained  most  willingly  silent,  as  I  believe  my 
own  age  or  personal  acquaintance  with  my  late  grandfather  can 
not  in  the  least  deteriorate  the  value  of  the  '  Organon,'  which  I 
have  had  faithfully  reprinted  from  one  of  the  previous  editions, 
which  was  considered  by  Hahnemann  himself  the  most  complete 
(according  to  my  late  mother's  assertion). 

"  In  common  fairness  Madame  Hahnemann  should  have  waited 
until  the  work  had  been  publi.shed,  when   it   would  have   been 


THE    RIVAL   ORGANONS    CONTINUED.  487 

time  to  criticise  its  correctness.  My  aunt,  Hahnemann's  3'oungest 
daughter,  is  still  alive  and  in  possession  of  quite  as  valuable 
manuscripts  as  Madame  Hahnemann  alleges  she  herself  possesses, 
and  being  with  her  on  the  most  affectionate  terms  of  relation- 
ship, I  have  always  received  her  willing  and  cordial  assistance 
in  all  my  literary  pursuits. 

"Madame  Hahnemann  seems  particularly  anxious  to  make  it 
known  amongst  the  Homoeopathic  profession  that  I  saw  my 
grandfather  but  twice  in  all  my  life,  once  when  six  years  old 
and  the  second  time  on  the  eve  of  his  death,  strongly  insisting 
therefrom  that  my  edition  of  the  'Organon'  ought  not  to  be  relied 
upon. 

"  Madame  Hahnemann  having  had  little  communication  with 
the  family  of  her  late  husband,  I  do  not  expect  her  to  know 
much  about  my  humble  self,  but  if  she  wishes  to  inform  the 
world  of  my  young  days,  I  might  expect  her  to  be  truthful  and 
correct  in  her  statements.  I  was  brought  up  and  educated  by 
my  late  grandfather  up  to  Mademoiselle  d'Hervilly's  sudden  ap- 
pearance in  Coethen,  when  I  was  sent  to  Halle  to  school,  and  at 
the  time  of  Madame  Hahnemann's  departure  with  my  grandfather 
to  Paris  I  was  just  eight  years  old;  I  was  also  present  at  my 
grandfather's  sorrowful  leave-taking  in  Halle  from  the  members 
of  his  family  who  had  accompanied  him  from  Coethen  to  that 
place. 

"Unfortunately,  I  was  only  present  at  the  very  last  dying 
moments  of  my  grandfather,  not  even  on  the  eve  of  his  death, 
although  my  late  mother  and  I  had  arrived  in  Paris  already  a 
whole  week  previous  to  this  sad  event  taking  place;  a  circum- 
stance Madame  Hahnemann  seems  to  have  forgotten,  as  she  does 
not  mention  it  in  her  article.  In  spite  of  our  most  earnest  en- 
treaties, in  spite  of  Hahnemann's  own  wish  to  see  once  more  his 
favorite  daughter,  Madame  Hahnemann  resolutely  and  sternly 
refused  us  an  interview  with  our  dying  parent,  when  he  would 
have  been  still  able  to  speak  to  us  and  to  bless  us.  Now,  in  her 
eagerness,  to  damage  any  forthcoming  edition  of  Hahnemann's 
works,  Madame  Hahnemann  has  betrayed  a  valuable  secret  by 
confessing  to  possess  the  manuscript  sixth  edition  of  the 
'Organon.'  ' Out  of  evil  cometh  good.'  I  feel  highly  gratified 
that  I  have  thus  indirectly  rendered  a  service  to  the  cause  of 
Homoeopathy;  for  Madame   Hahnemann   declares   herself,  after 


488  LIFE   OF    HAHNEMANN. 

twenty-two  years  silence,  ready  to  publish  this  manuscript.  I 
hope  she  will  soon  do  it;  better  late  than  never,  although  this 
neglect  amounts  almost  to  contempt  of  the  whole  Homoeopathic 
medical  profession. 

"I  am,  gentlemen,  your  obedient  servant, 

"L.  Suss-Hahnemann. 
''  May  JO,  1865.'' 

During  the  summer  of  1865  the  Faculty  of  the  Homoeopathic 
Medical  College  of  Pennsylvania  wrote  to  Madame  Hahnemann 
stating  that  the  previous  English  and  American  editions  of  the 
"Organon"  were  full  of  errors,  and  in  order  that  a  reliable  edi- 
tion might  be  obtained  they  offered  to  literally  translate  the 
manuscript  of  a  sixth  edition  that  was  in  her  possession.  When 
it  is  remembered  that  Drs.  Hering,  Raue  and  lyippe  were  at 
that  time  members  of  this  Faculty,  it  can  readily  be  understood 
that  Madame  Hahnemann  could  have  no  just  reason  for  refusing 
these  gentlemen  the  manuscript  of  the  "  Organon,"  supposed  to 
have  been  left  by  Hahnemann. 

Madame  Hahnemann  sent  the  following  letter  in  reply:* 

''C.  Hering,  M.  D. 

''My  Dear  and  Excellent  Doctor  and  Friend:  I  have  received 
the  letter  which  you  and  the  physicians,  who  signed  it,  have 
collectively  addressed  to  me  concerning  the  literal  translation  of 
the  '  Organon'  into  the  English  language,  of  which  the  original 
MS.  is  in  my  possession. 

"I  am  very  glad  you  will  make  this  translation,  because  then 
I  shall  be  certain  it  will  be  done  with  fidelity  and  perfection. 

"It  is  certainly  not  from  any  indifference  that  I  have  delayed 
so  long  to  say  to  you  how  much  I  approve  of  your  proposition; 
this  delay  was  caused  by  the  desire  that  I  might  be  able  to  an- 
nounce the  beginning  of  the  printing  of  this  book,  of  which  I 
would  immediately  have  sent  you  a  copy. 

"A  first  copy,  though  made  in  my  house  and  from  the  MS. 
proved  so  faulty  and  incorrect  that  it  was  impossible  to  make 
any  use  of  it. 

"Like  you,  I  would  not  permit  that  a  single  word  of  the 
sacred  text  should  be  changed.  I  have  consequently  been 
obliged  to  have  a  new  copy  made,  and  this  time  in  my  presence 
* Hahnemannian  Monthly,  Vol.  i.,  p.  171. 


THB   ORGANON    CONTINUED.  489 

and  under  my  eyes.  This  copy  is  now  making  at  such  hours  as 
I  can  superintend  it;  this  will  delay  the  finishing  of  it  a  little. 
As  soon  as  it  is  completed  and  the  printing  commenced,  I  will 
send  you  the  sheets  as  they  are  printed.  They  will  be  forwarded 
to  you  through  Mr.  Bigelow,  my  friend  and  your  Ambassador  at 

Paris.  >!;>!<>[;  ;};  *  >!=  ^ 

"  I  regret  very  much  that  you  have  not  received  my  previous 
letters,  which  contained  communications  respecting  some  unpub- 
lished medicines,  which  would  have  interested  you. 

"  Be  kind  enough  to  offer  my  compliments  to  the  physicians 
who  joined  you  in  writing  to  me,  and  say  to  them  that  I  honor 
and  esteem  them  as  faithful  disciples  who  are  intent  to  promul- 
gate the  true  doctrine  of  the  Master  as  he  created  and  per- 
fected it. 

' '  Accept  the  expression  of  my  admiration  for  your  labors,  and 
my  best  wishes  for  your  health  and  happiness. 

"  M.  Hahnemann, 
''Paris,  5^  Faubourg  St.  Honore.'^ 


CHAPTER  XC. 

THE    "  ORGANON "    CONTINUED — DR.    BAYES'S    OFFER    FOR    THE 

MSS. — CORRESPONDENCE   BETWEEN   MADAME   HAHNEMANN 

AND   DR.  T.  P.  WILSON. 

But  the  expected  sheets  of  the  "Organon"  did  not  appear. 
Neither  did  Dr.  Suss- Hahnemann  publish  his  advertised  edition. 

Mention  was  occasionally  made  to  visitors  by  Madame  Hahne- 
mann of  the  fact  that  the  sixth  edition  was  in  her  possession. 
And  then  came  the  Franco-German  war,  and  in  it,  so  she  said, 
Madame  Hahnemann  lost  her  fortune. 

In  1877,  Dr.  Bayes,  in  behalf  of  the  lyondon  School  of  Homce- 
•opathy,  wrote  to  Madame  Hahnemann,  asking  if  she  would 
intrust  some  or  all  of  the  valuable  records  of  Hahnemann,  in  her 
possession,  to  the  I^ondon  School  for  publication.*  She  replied  to 
him  that  she  had  the  sixth  edition  of  the  ' '  Organon ' '  finally 
corrected,  and  was  willing  to  superintend  its  publication  if  the 
Homoeopathic  profession  of  England  would  raise  for  her  a  sum 

*  Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  xxxvi.,  p.  302. 


490  LIFK    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

the  interest  of  which  would  be  equivalent  to  the  income  she 
derived  from  her  practice.  This  the  British  Homoeopaths  nat- 
urally thought  rather  exorbitant. 

*M.  Sanches,  who  took  up  the  matter  in  behalf  of  Madame 
Hahnemann,  said  that  the  publication  was  delayed  because 
Hahnemann  suggested  to  her  that  delay  might  be  wise  until 
time  should  settle  men's  minds,  and  that  she  should  fix  her  own 
time  in  the  future.  In  answer  to  this  a  letter  written  to  Dr. 
Hirschfeld  by  Hahnemann  in  March,  1843,  is  quoted:  "I  have 
resolved  to  retire  from  practice  before  I  am  forced  to  do  so  by 
the  weakness  of  old  age,  and  by  God's  grace  I  will  bring  out  the 
sixth  ed'tion  of  my  'Organon,'  which  will  be  more  complete 
than  the  others." 

In  1877  Madame  Hahnemann  addressed  the  following  letter  to 
Dr.  T.  P.  Wilson,  the  editor  of  the  Medical  A dva7ice:\ 

"  104  Faubourg  St.  Honore,  Paris, 

"  November  9,  1877. 

"J/,  le  Dodeur  Wilson:  I  regret  that  I  did  not  receive  your 
letter  sooner.  It  came  while  I  was  away  from  Paris,  which  is 
but  seldom.  You  ask  me  about  the  sixth  edition  of  the  '  Orga- 
non.' I  wish  to  say  that  I  have  in  my  possession  important 
unpublished  papers  written  by  my  beloved  husband,  and  con- 
fided to  my  care  before  his  death.  There  is  in  them  much  that 
is  new  and  of  great  value  to  the  medical  world,  and  no  one  but 
myself  can  arrange  them  in  proper  shape,  for  they  were  given 
me  with  full  explanations  by  the  great  Founder  of  Homoeopathy 
himself.  What  a  grand  volume  these  would  make!  What  a  large 
number  of  copies  could  be  sold  to  the  physicians  of  America,  for 
in  your  country  the  doctrines  of  Homoeopathy  have  taken  strong 
and  wide  hold.     Even  the  Allopathic  school  would  seek  it 

"  I  have  all  of  Hahnemann's  correspondence  filed  by  his  own 
hand  and  marked  by  notes.  You  see,  my  dear  doctor,  it  will  be 
a  great  work  to  get  this  mass  of  material  out  in  the  order  Hahne- 
mann desired.  I  alone  can  do  it.  Drs.  Lippe  and  Hering,  of 
Philadelphia,  are  informed  of  my  desire.  They  know  I  lost  all 
my  property  in  the  Franco  Prussian  war,  and  that  I  now  have  to 
make  my  living  by  the  practice  of  medicine.  Such  being  the 
fact,  I  have  no  time  to  attend  to  this  great  work. 


''^  Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  xxxvii.,  p.  101-4. 

t  Cincinnati  Med.  Advance,  Vol.  v.,  pp.  404,  545. 


MADAME    HAHNEMANN  S    I.ETTER   TO    DR.    WILSON.  49I 

"I  do  not  wish  to  make  any  money  out  of  the  writings  of 
Hahnemann.  Those  I  have  are  my  property,  but  I  will  freely 
give  them  to  his  followers  and  friends  if  I  can  have  the  oppor- 
tunity. What  I  desire  is  assistance  from  the  Homoeopathic 
physicians  of  America.  Do  you  not  think  they  would  subscribe 
for  the  book  and  remit  to  me  so  much  in  advance  as  would  en- 
able me  to  live  without  practicing  my  profession  until  I  can  get 
out  the  work?  I  have  the  energy  and  ability  to  do  it,  if  only  I 
can  have  the  time.  It  would  be  a  proud  gift  to  lay  in  the  hands 
of  the  profession,  and  no  doctor  but  would  be  glad  to  see  it  in 
the  hands  of  his  patients.  This  matter  was  under  advisement  at 
the  time  the  late  Dr.  Carroll  Dunham  was  arranging  the  World's 
Homoeopathic  Convention,  and  but  for  his  lamented  death  this 
project  would  now  be  already  consummated.  Dr.  Dunham  was 
greatly  desirous  to  have  these  papers  brought  out.  Now,  my 
dear  doctor,  you  have  sufl&cient  authority  to  undertake  this 
matter  of  procuring  subscribers.  I  know  you  cannot  fail. 
America  is  a  land  of  great  undertakings.  It  is  not  like  Europe, 
where  everyone  sticks  to  the  old  ways.  Thanks  to  your  liberty 
and  the  energy  of  your  people  who  have  so  generously  accepted 
the  teachings  of  Hahnemann! 

"I  want  the  subscriptions  taken  in  Hahnemann's  name,  and 
I  am  glad  you  appreciate  the  importance  of  the  task.  I  am, 
doctor,  with  sentiments  of  high  regard  and  fraternal  considera- 
tion, "Yours, 

"M.  Hahnemann." 

The  April  number  of  the  Advance  contained  the  following 
letter : 

"  104  Faubourg  St.  Honore,  Paris, 
"March  4,  (1878). 

"■  M.  le  Dodeur  Wilson:  Upon  referring  to  my  letter  written  to 
you  and  published  in  your  January  number,  I  find  that  I  am  not 
correctly  represented  in  the  following  phrase : 

' '  Do  you  not  think  they  would  subscribe  for  the  book  and  re- 
mit to  me  so  much  in  advance  as  would  enable  me  to  live  with- 
out practicing  my  profession  until  I  can  get  out  the  work? 

"What  I  desire  is  a  subscription,  which  once  organized  will 
produce  a  fund  sufficiently  large  to  enable  me  to  give  my  entire 
time  to  the  works  of  Hahnemann,  and  obviate  the  necessity  of 
my  attempting  to  recover  my  practice,  which,  in  the  nature  of 


492  LIFE   OF    HAHNEMANN. 

things,  I  must  lose  while  engaged  in  this  work.  I  have  never 
yet  sold  one  of  Hahnemann's  works;  I  have  only  used  them  in 
order  to  meet  my  necessities.  I  ask  only  for  a  subscription  from 
the  doctors  and  their  patients.  Such  a  subscription,  if  properly 
managed,  would  in  a  little  time  produce  a  capital  of  considerable 
size  without  causing  the  doctors  to  give  more  than  they  wished. 
It  is  the  surest  means,  the  most  delicate  manner  and  the  most 
honorable  by  which  to  obtain  money  in  an  affair  of  this  kind. 
I  wish  to  begin  this  work  as  soon  a->  possible.  In  the  course  of 
a  few  months  I  will  be  able  to  give  you  the  '  Organon '  for 
printing.  After  that  I  will  proceed  to  the  other  works  which  are 
equally  of  great  importance.  Present  my  thanks  to  the  noble 
doctor  who  proffered  aid  in  the  sum  of  one  hundred  dollars 
(Breyfogle).     I  thank  you  all  in  the  name  of  Hahnemann. 

"  With  great  esteem  and  consideration,  I  remain  yours,  dear 
doctor, 

"M.  Hahnemann." 

Nothing  resulted,  although  there  was  some  further  correspond- 
ence. 


CHAPTKR  XCI. 

death    of    MADAME    HAHNEMANN  —  MADAME    BCENNINGHAUSEN 

TO  DR.  T.  P.  WILSON — VISIT   OF   DR.  J.  A.  CAMPBELL  TO 

MADAME    BOENNINGHAUSEN — LETTERS    TO    DR. 

CAMPBELL. 

Madame  Hahnemann  died  of  bronchial  catarrh,  like  her  hus- 
band, on  May  27,  1878.  The  following  editorial  appeared  in  the 
Medical  Advance  .•* 

"We  are  pained  to  announce  the  death  of  this  distinguished 
lady,  the  wife  of  Dr.  Samuel  Hahnemann.  She  died,  as  will  be 
seen,  in  Paris,  on  the  27th  of  last  May.  She  was  seventy-eight 
years  old.  Our  readers  are  aware  that  since  the  death  of  Hahne- 
mann, now  some  thirty  years  ago,  Madame  Hahnemann  has  been 
in  possession  of  a  large  amount  of  unpublished  manuscript,  the 
work  of  her  husband.  From  causes  not  worth  while  to  mention 
here,  they  have  been  withheld  from  the  profession.     Negotia- 


*  Cincinnati  iJ/(?c^.  Advance,  Vol.  vi.,  p.  129. 


DEATH    OP   MADAME    HAHNEMANN.  493 

tions  have  of  late  been  pending  for  the  purchase  of  the  manu- 
scripts with  a  view  to  their  publication.  In  this  work  the  medi- 
cal profession  of  America  has  shown  a  lively  interest.  As  will 
be  seen  by  the  subjoined  letter  there  is  hope  that  the  scheme 
may  be  yet  consummated.     The  following  has  just  come  to  hand: 

"'104  Faubourg  St.  Honors,  Paris,  France, 

"  'June  5,  1878. 
"  'J/,  le  Dodeur  Wilso7i :  I  announce  to  you  the  sad  loss  I  have 
sustained  in  the  death  of  my  beloved  mother,  Madame  Samuel 
Hahnemann.  On  the  27th  of  May  she  succumbed  to  a  pulmonary 
catarrh  from  which  she  had  suffered  many  years.  I  am  her 
adopted  daughter,  and  have  had  charge  of  her  correspondence 
with  you  in  reference  to  the  unpublished  manuscripts  of  Hahne- 
mann, and  I  am  quite  disposed  to  complete  the  plan  already  pro- 
posed by  you  and  accepted  by  her.  It  is  now  several  months 
since  she  made  me  commence,  under  her  supervision,  the  first 
copy  in  German  of  the  sixth  edition  of  the  '  Organon.'  I  have 
already  advanced  a  long  way  with  the  work,  and  happily  I 
know  her  wishes  exactly  in  regard  to  it. 

"  '  Receive,  Monsieur  Doctor,  my  highest  esteem, 

"  '  S.  Bcenninghausen  Hahnemann.' 

' '  It  will  be  remembered  from  our  former  correspondence  pub- 
lished in  the  Advance  that  Madame  Hahnemann  proposed  to 
make  a  gift  of  all  Hahnemann's  unpublished  works  'to  the 
Homoeopathic  physicians  of  America  as  a  token  of  her  apprecia- 
tion of  the  regard  they  have  always  had  for  her  distinguished 
husband.' 

' '  In  return  for  this  it  was  proposed  to  raise  a  fund  sufficiently 
large  for  its  interest  to  support  the  donor  during  the  balance  of 
her  life.  Already  considerable  money  had  been  subscribed,  and 
but  for  the  death  of  Madame  Hahnemann  the  matter  would  have 
been  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  American  Institute  of  Homoeop- 
athy, and  probably  the  plan  completed  under  its  direction.  In 
this  we  have  now  been  frustrated,  and  some  negotiations  must 
be  entered  upon  to  be  reported  on  at  some  subsequent  time. 

"  If  Madame  B. -Hahnemann  proves  to  be  what  her  letters  in- 
dicate, we  will  have  no  special  trouble  in  becoming  possessed  of 
the  works  in  question.  We  solicit  suggestions  and  advice  upon 
the  matter  from  our  readers. — T.  P.  Wii^SON,  M.  D." 


494  LIFE    OF   HAHNEMANN. 

This  was  published  in  the  July  number  of  the  Advance,  and 
in  the  August  number  the  following  letter  from  Dr.  J.  A.  Camp- 
bell may  be  found : 

"  Editor  Medical  Advance :  When  I  left  America  bearing  your 
letters  of  introduction  to  Madame  Hahnemann,  with  authority 
to  confer  with  her  in  refarence  to  the  unpublished  manuscripts 
of  her  illustrious  husband,  I  looked  forward  with  much  interest 
to  the  occasion  which  would  take  me  into  the  personal  presence 
of  the  one  nearest  the  great  founder  of  our  system  of  practice;  one 
almost  to  be  venerated  by  reason  of  association;  one  who  would 
be  full  of  personal  reminiscences,  and  one  who  would  be  sur- 
rounded on  all  sides  by  things  which  were  with  and  were  a  part 
of  Hahnemann's  everyday  life.  But  as  you  are  probably  already 
informed,  Madame  Hahnemann  is  now  peacefully  at  rest  by  the 
side  of  her  husband  in  the  cemetery  of  Montmartre. 

"I  have  had  two  interesting  interviews  with  Madame  Boen- 
ninghausen,  the  adopted  daughter  of  Madame  Hahnemann  and 
the  wife  of  Dr.  Carl  Bcenninghausen.  I  know  it  will  be  of  some 
interest  to  give  a  brief  account  of  some  of  the  facts  thus  ob- 
tained. 

"  Madame  Hahnemann  had  suffered  more  or  less  for  about  two 
years  with  catarrh  of  the  lungs  (thus  it  was  given  me).  No  particu- 
lar attention  was  given  it,  as  it  was  not  regarded  as  very  serious. 
About  eight  days  before  she  died  it  became  much  aggravated 
and  she  rapidly  sank,  and  on  the  twenty -seventh  of  May  died  at 
the  advanced  age  of  seventy-eight. 

"  I  sat  by  the  side  of  Madame  Bcenninghausen  at  the  little 
table  which  Madame  Hahnemann  had  just  left  as  it  were. 
Before  me  stood  pictures  in  miniature  of  her,  taken  when  young 
and  fair.     By  its  side  one  of  Hahnemann. 

"  In  the  corner  of  the  room  stood  the  bed  in  which  Madame 
Hahnemann  had  so  recently  died.  And  as  one  by  one  the  relics 
of  Hahnemann  and  his  former  life  were  placed  before  me  it  was  to 
me,  indeed,  as  if  I  felt  his  very  presence.  Here  is  a  full,  curly 
lock  of  his  hair,  once  pure  and  white,  but  now  golden  with  age; 
I  could  almost  be  superstitious  and  believe  it  an  emblematic 
symbol  by  fate  ordained — silver  turned  to  precious  gold.  There 
was  his  pocket  handkerchief,  collar  and  neckerchief,  the  last 
worn  by  him  and  just  as  he  left  them. 

"  On  one  side  was  a  large  bundle  of  his  correspondence  from 


DR.    CAMPBELIv  S   VISIT   TO    MADAME    BGENNINGHAUSEN.     495 

patients,  with  marginal  notes  of  the  remedies  prescribed.  Before 
me  hung  a  magnificent  oil  portrait  of  Hahnemann,  painted  when 
he  was  about  sixty.  In  the  corner  stood  a  grand  bust  in  marble 
(by  David),  the  original  of  the  many  fine  plaster  casts.  In  fact, 
everything  about  me  was  Hahnemann  and  of  Hahnemann. 

"As  the  subject  of  Hahnemann's  manuscripts  and  the  sixth 
edition  of  the  '  Organon'  has  been  taken  hold  of  with  so  much 
interest  in  America,  s  few  facts  on  this  topic  will  be  in  place 
here.  Madame  Boenninghausen  received  me  very  cordially  and 
has  given  me  the  fullest  information  possible  upon  the  subject. 

"She  showed  me  an  old  edition  of  the  'Organon,'  full  of 
marginal  notes,  interlineations  and  additions  made  by  Hahne- 
mann. Madame  B.  says  this  has  never  been  published.  And 
this  is  to  be  the  sixth  edition  promised.  About  three  months 
before  Madame  Hahnemann's  death  Madame  Boenninghausen 
commenced  to  copy  all  of  this  into  an  intelligible  form  under 
the  immediate  supervision  and  direction  of  Madame  Hahnemann 
herself. 

' '  The  death  of  the  latter  has  necessarily  caused  a  temporary 
suspension  of  the  work,  but  Madame  B.  informs  me  that  she  will 
have  it  all  completed  in  about  three  months.  It  is  all  in 
German,  and  rather  difiicult  to  decipher  and  understand  unless 
previously  instructed. 

"This  Madame  B.  claims  to  have  been,  and  she  informs  me 
that  she  is  following  the  general  instructions  given  Madame 
Hahnemann  by  Hahnemann  himself,  and  that  she  will  faithfully 
and  accurately  transcribe  it,  and  when  finished  will  send  it  in 
this  form  to  America  for  translation  and  publication. 

"  The  other  manuscript  spoken  of  consists  of  a  large  number 
of  letters  from  patients  to  Hahnemann,  describing  their  symp- 
toms, while  on  their  margins  are  notes  by  Hahnemann  of  the 
remedies  given,  showing  how  he  treated  cases  and  what  he  gave. 
These  letters  make  a  bundle  weighing  about  thirty  pounds. 

"  Madame  B.  informs  me  that  she  has  had  many  applications 
from  Germany  and  from  France  by  parties  very  desirous  of 
obtaining  these  papers  for  publication,  but  she  says  that  to 
America  they  must  go.  Such  was  Madame  Hahnemann's  desire, 
which  she  seconds  with  all  her  heart.  She  says  that  it  is  to 
America  that  Homoeopathy  must  look  for  its  best  support  and 
its   proper   promulgation,  and  that  America  is   the  nation  for 


496  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

great  enterprise  and  action.  She  further  says  that  she  intends 
to  leave  by  will,  to  some  properly  constituted  representative 
body  in  America,  Hahnemann's  original  manuscript,  his  mag- 
nificent bust,  and  the  grand  portrait  spoken  of,  and  other 
mementoes  connected  with  our  great  leader  and  his  life  history 
while  here. 

"And  now  how  will  America  respond?  How  will  she  show 
that  she  is  worthy  of  this  distinction,  as  above  all  other  nations 
the  champion  of  the  great  cause  ?  This  is  the  question  to  be 
answed  by  the  profession  at  large. 

"A  few  words  as  to  Madame  Boenninghausen.  Madame 
Hahnemann  was  thirty- five  years  old  when  she  married  Hahne- 
mann; just  before  he  died,  by  his  special  request,  Madame  H. 
adopted  Madame  Boenninghausen,  then  about  five  years  of  age. 
She  is  now  the  wife  of  Dr.  Carl  Boenninghausen.* 

"  They  all  lived  here  together  in  Paris  until  the  breaking  out 
of  the  Franco-German  war;  they  then  went  to  Westphalia,  where 
Dr.  B,  is  at  present  attending  to  a  large  practice,  going  back- 
wards and  forwards  from  time  to  time.  Madame  B.  was  the 
constant  companion  of  Madame  Hahnemann  and  her  main  reli- 
ance, and  thus  she  ought  certainly  better  than  any  one  else  to 
understand  the  task  before  her. 

"  Fraternally  yours, 

"James  A.  CampbeivL,  M.  D. 
^^  Paris,  Jicne  22,  iSyS.'" 


Dr.  James  A.  Campbell,  writing  to  the  compiler  of  this  book 
in  1893,  says  of  this  visit: 
"  Dear  Doctor: 

"Yours  of  August,  1893,  i^  reference  to  my  letter  from  Paris 
to  Dr.  Wilson  in  1878  received.  What  the  final  disposition  of 
the  literary  and  other  relics  of  Hahnemann  was  I  am  unable  to 
say.  As  the  letter  tells,  I  went  over,  hoping  to  arrange  with 
Madame  Hahnemann  in  reference  to  the  publication  of  the  sixth 
edition  of  the  'Organon.'  I  arrived  there  just  a  few  weeks  after 
her  death,  and  had  all  my  dealings  with  Madame  Boenning- 
hausen, the  adopted  daughter. 

"Madame  Hahnemann  was,  as  you  know,  a  bushiess  woman, 

*The  eldest  son  of  Baron  von  Boenninghausen. 


I 


LETTER   FROM   DR.    CAMPBELIv.  497 

close  and  grasping^.  She  thought  that  great  and  rich  America 
could  and  would  pay,  and  pay  well  for  this  fifth  edition  '  Or- 
ganon  '  with  marginal  notes  all  through,  made  by  Hahnemann 
himself,  and  this  was  to  be  the  sixth  edition. 

"She  wanted  $50,000.  Madame  Boenninghausen  also  saw 
visions  of  wealth  from  the  same  source,  but  she  put  the  price  at 
$25,000. 

''I  assured  her  that  such  a  proposition  would  never  be  enter- 
tained by  the  American  Institute  of  Homoeopathy,  as  it  was 
entirely  impossible  to  devote  that  amount  for  the  purpose.  I  told 
her  that  without  question  she  would  be  allowed  to  have  all 
profits  arising  from  the  sale  of  the  book,  but  beyond  that  we 
could  not  go. 

"She  told  me  it  was  her  intention  to  give  to  the  American  In- 
stitute either  the  fine  marble  bust  spoken  of  or  the  portrait  of 
splendid  proportions  which  hung  in  the  same  room.  She  even 
offered  me  Hahnemann's  watch  to  take  to  the  Institute,  but  I 
saw  it  was  in  a  moment  of  hysterical  impulse,  and  I  refused  to 
take  it.  She  gave  me  several  cameo  heads  of  Hahnemann,  suit- 
able for  a  ring  or  scarf  pin,  to  be  presented  to  several  well- 
known  Homoeopathists  in  America;  one  to  I/ippe,  one  to  Hel- 
muth,  etc.  I  have  one.  myself,  also  a  ring  set  with  the  same 
cameo." 

In  a  letter  dated  September  19,  1893,  Dr.  Campbell  says: 

"  After  my  return,  in  1878,  I  had  some  correspondence  with 
Madame  Boenninghausen  on  the  subject.  Five  of  these  letters  I 
inclose.  You  may  find  something  of  interest  in  them.  You  will 
see  that  she  was  quite  diplomatic  in  reference  to  the  price  for 
her  wares,  with  me  it  was  $25,000  that  she  named  as  the  price. 
You  will  find  that  the  part  of  her  letters  written  in  German  are 
more  satisfactory  in  respect  to  information.  My  conferences 
with  her  were  in  German,  as  that  is  her  native  tongue. 

"James  A.  Campbell." 


498  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 


CHAPTER  XCII. 

LETTERS     FROM    MADAME    BCENNINGHAUSEN — MEETING     OF 
HOMCEOPATHIC    PHYSICIANS. 

Space  forbids  publishing  all  the  five  letters  mentioned.  Most 
of  them  are  written  both  in  German  and  English  in  the  same 
letter. 

The  first  letter  from  Madame  Boenninghausen  is  as  follows: 

"Paris,  August  5,  1879. 
"278  Faubourg.  St.  Germain. 
*  'Dear  Doctor: 

"As  I  had  the  pleasure  last  year  to  make  your  personal  ac- 
quaintance in  Paris,  and  having  been  imbued  with  your  great 
love  and  enthusiasm  for  our  beautiful  and  beneficial  Homoeop- 
athy, I  believe  I  can  give  you  a  great  pleasure  to-day  in  making 
haste  to  announce  that  a  copy  of  the  sixth  edition  of  the  '  Orga- 
non '  is  now  entirely  finished  and  in  such  shape  as  to  be  given 
to  the  printer.  At  the  same  time  knowing  tlie  friendly  relations 
which  you  have  with  Dr.  Wilson,  of  Cincinnati,  I  turn  to  you  to 
express  my  astonishment  at  not  having  yet  received  an  answer 
from  him  to  my  last  letter,  in  which  I  begged  him  to  make 
counter  propositions  relative  or  about  the  literary  remains  of 
Hahnemann,  inasmuch  as  he  did  not  accept  my  propositions, 
which  are  the  same  as  were  those  of  my  mother.  It  is  very  sad 
that  so  much  time  is  wasted,  and  yet  it  would  be  such  an  easy 
matter  to  arrange  to  give  to  the  world  this  indispensable  work, 
and  that  in  the  shortest  possible  time;  it  is  the  more  sad  if  you 
bear  in  mind  that  it  is  but  a  question  of  money  which  stands  in 
the  way  to  the  publishing  of  Hahnemann's  writings.  Of  just  as 
much  importance  in  another  direction  are  the  series  of  books 
containing  Hahnemann's  clinical  cases,  which  fill  sixty  large 
volumes,  beginning  with  the  nativity  of  Homoeopathy  and  end- 
ing with  the  death  of  the  great  Master. 

"The  '  Organon '  and  the  clinical  cases  supplement  each 
other;  in  the  '  Organon  '  Hahnemann  shows  the  theory  of  his 
new  doctrine,  in  the  clinical  cases  he  shows  the  practical  appli- 


LETTERS   FROM   MADAME   BCENNINGHAUSEN.  499 

cation  at  the  sick  bed,  and  how  glorious  the  theory  and  practice 
accord  is  documented  in  a  telling  manner  in  these  works,  and 
for  such  work  America  cannot  make  any  financial  sacrifices,  this 
America  which  has  done  so  much  for  science  and  especially  for 
Homoeopathy,  whose  physicians  owe  their  fortune  almost  alto- 
gether to  this  beautiful  law  of  cure.  If  every  Homoeopathic 
physician  of  America  and  their  patients  were  to  contribute  only 
a  few  dollars  the  amount  necessary  to  secure  these  important 
writings  could  easily  be  raised.  How  happy  would  I  be  if  my 
financial  condition  was  such  as  to  permit  me  to  give  you  all  these 
precious  manuscripts  of  Hahnemann  as  a  present;  but,  alas,  you 
have  already  been  made  acquainted,  and  that  through  my  be- 
loved mother  herself,  we  lost  our  whole  fortune  in  the  war  of 
187 1.  Dr.  Wilson  told  me  at  the  time  that  he  could,  were  my 
mother  yet  amongst  the  living,  easily  raise  the  necessary  funds 
by  subscription.  Why  should  that  not  be  possible  after  her 
death?  the  value  of  the  writings  surely  is  the  same  and  has  not 
been  diminished  by  one  jot.  I  entreat  you,  therefore,  highly 
honored  doctor,  to  communicate  with  your  colleague,  Dr.  Wilson, 
as  to  the  acquisition  of  Hahnemann's  writings,  and  to  let  me 
know  the  result  of  your  endeavors  by  return  mail. 

"1  think  I  have  mentioned  already  to  you  that  I  have  all 
letters  which  were  written  by  the  patients  to  Hahnemann,  'many 
thousands  of  letters'  in  my  possession.  In  addition  to  these 
letters  Hahnemann  not  only  mentioned  a  remedy  which  he  pre- 
scribed in  that  given  case  with  his  own  hand,  but  he  added 
many  remarks. 

"With  high  esteem,  I  am, 
' '  Very  sincerely  yours, 

"S.  BcENNINGHAUSEN  HAHNEMANN. 


The  next  letter  is  in  both  English  and  German. 

"Paris,  loth  November,  1879. 
"■ '  My  Dear  Doctor: 

' '  I  found  your  last  and  very  kind  letter  on  my  return  from  a 
short  trip  to  Germany  and  I  thank  you  very  much  for  the  inter- 
est and  friendship  you  express. 

"Soon  after  the  reception  of  your  letter  our  mutual  friend.  Dr. 
Wilson,  wrote  and  told  me  that  it  will  be  his  happiness  at  the  next 
session  of  the  American  Institute  of  Homoeopathy,  in  his  inaugu- 


500  LIFE   OF   HAHNEMANN. 

ral  address  as  president,  to  lay  before  them  the  whole  subject  and 
recommend  the  appointment  of  a  committee  to  take  charge 
in  the  matter.  He  is  a  powerful  man  and  in  a  position  to  gain 
the  attention  of  all  the  Homoeopathic  physicians  in  his  country, 
and  if  you'll  aid  me  also  with  your  influence,  dear  doctor,  the  suc- 
cess is  sure  beforehand. 

"I  thank  you  for  the  congratulation  at  the  completion  of  the 
work;  it  is  very  desirable  that  it  shall  be  pviblished  as  soon  as 
possible. 

"I  have  sent  Dr.  Wilson  my  answers  in  reference  to  the  sub- 
jects that  we  discussed  in  Paris,  and  I  hope  he  will  understand 
it  because  I  wrote  in  French.     *     *     *     With  assurances  of  es- 
teem and  sincere  friendship, 
"I  remain,  dear  sir, 

' '  Yours  truly, 

"S.   BCENNINGHAUSEN  HAHNEMANN." 


"Paris,  23rd  January,  1880. 

''My  Dear  Doctor :  I  write  to  you  again  knowing  with  what 
skill  and  love  you  devoted  yourself  to  the  early  publication  of  the 
writings  of  Hahnemann. 

"Our  mutual  friend.  Dr.  Wilson,  wrote  to  me  about  two  months 
ago  asking  for  permission  to  have  an  attorney  examine  Hahne- 
mann's papers,  in  his  name.  He  also  would  like  to  know  the 
conditions  under  which  I  would  deliver  these  to  him.  1  im- 
mediately answered  Dr.  Wilson  that  I  was  quite  willing  to  en- 
tertain his  proposition  as  to  the  examination  of  the  papers,  as  he 
decided,  with  the  conditions.  They  are  the  same  which  I  told 
you,  my  dear  doctor,  at  your  last  visit,  at  your  request.  I  am 
still  without  an  answer  to  this  letter  and  am  afraid  that  the  same 
may  have  been  lost  in  transit.  Owing  to  this  delay  I  am  com- 
pelled to  make  a  journey  to  Germany  in  short  time,  but  which 
journey  I  do  not  want  to  undertake  until  I  am  advised  at  about 
what  time  this  attorney  is  to  make  the  examination  of  Hahne- 
mann's writings  and  will  call  on  me  to  that  efiect,  for  as  a  mat- 
ter of  course  I  would  have  to  be  in  Paris  when  he  arrives,  for 
without  me  he  could  do  nothing.  I  entreat  you,  therefore,  my 
dear  doctor,  to  write  for  me  to  your  friend,  Dr.  Wilson,  and  to 
find  out  the  cause  of  his  silence;  would  you  do  me  that  favor? 
and  now  a  question  honored  doctor:   I  recollect  that  you  told  me, 


ADDRESS    BY    DR.    WILSON.  5OI 

in  answer  to  my  question  when  you  would  come  to  Paris  again, 
that  you  would  do  so  in  two  or  three  years,  and  I  recollect  this 
answer  with  a  great  deal  of  pleasure,  and  I  beg  you  to  tell  me 
whether  you  can  hold  out  a  hope  that  possibly  I  should  have 
the  pleasure  of  seeing  you  again  already  this  year;  I  can  assure 
you  it  would  afford  me  great  gratification  to  see  you  again. 

"Hoping  that  you  and  your  esteemed  family  are  in  the  best  of 
health,  I  beg  to  assure  you,  my  dear  doctor,  of  my  high  esteem 
and  friendship.     I  am, 

"Very  sincerely  yours, 

"S.  BCENNINGHAUSKN  HAHNEMANN." 


Dr.  T.  P.  Wilson  in  his  address  as  President  of  the  American 
Institute  of  Homoeopathy  at  the  meeting  held  in  Milwaukee,  in 
1880,  kept  his  promise  to  Madame  Boenninghausen,  and  referred 
to  the  matter  as  follows:*  "It  is  well  known  to  most  of  you  that 
but  a  small  part  of  the  writings  of  Samuel  Hahnemann  has  been 
given  to  the  world.  His  'Materia  Medica  Pura,'  his  'Chronic 
Diseases,'  his  '  Lesser  Writings,'  and,  above  all,  his  '  Organon  of 
the  Art  of  Healing '  have  long  been  the  classics  of  our  literature. 
I  am  credibly  informed  that  a  large  amount  of  unpublished 
manuscript  is  yet  in  the  hands  of  his  heirs.  I  have  in  my  pos- 
session a  pretty  full  catalogue  of  what  those  writings  comprise. 
It  has  been  thought  desirable  by  many  that  these  should  be 
given  to  the  world.  I  am  heartily  of  that  opinion.  I  would 
like  to  place  in  the  hands  of  a  committee  such  documents  as  have 
come  into  my  possession  in  reference  to  this  matter,  and  to  have 
that  committee  report  upon  the  subject  at  an  early  date." 

Nothing  more  seems  to  have  been  done  about  the  matter. 
The  records  of  the  Institute  show  the  appointment  of  no  com- 
mittee. 

Not  long  afterwards  Dr.  H.  N.  Guernsey  went  to  Europe  and 
visited  Madame  Boenninghausen.  On  his  return  a  meeting  was 
lield  at  the  house  of  Dr.  Hering,  in  Philadelphia. 

This  meeting  resulted  in  the  following  circular: 

"At  a  meeting  of  Homoeopathic  physicians,  held  at  the  house 
of  Dr.  Hering,  June  9th,  1880,  for  the  purpose  of  procuring  and 
publishing  the  MSS.  of  Hahnemann,  Dr.  H.  N.  Guernsey  made 
the  following  report: 

*  Trans.  Am.  Inst,  of  Homoeopathy,  1880,  p.  32. 


502  LIFE    OF    HAHNEMANN. 

"Having  just  returned  from  Europe,  where  I  made  the 
acquaintance  of  Madame  Bcenninghausen,  Hahnemann's  adopted 
daughter,  the  present  possessor  of  the  MSS.,  etc.,  and  also  of 
Peter  Stuart,  Esq.,  of  Liverpool,  a  wealthy  ship  owner  and  an 
enthusiastic  Homoeopath,  who  has  the  entire  confidence  of 
Madame  Bcenninghausen,  I  am  able  to  make  the  following  state- 
ment, viz.:  The  MSS.  consist  of: 

"(i).  The  sixth  edition  of  Hahnemann's  'Organon,'  m  his 
0W71  handwriting ;  together  with  a  copy  thereof  by  the  late 
Madame  Hahnemann  ;  this  sixth  edition  contains  many  improve- 
ments which  never  have  been  published. 

"(2).  His  case-books  (nearly  fifty  in  number),  containing  the 
records  of  his  practice  from  the  beginning  of  Homoeopathy  until 
his  death. 

"(3).  His  correspondence  with  his  patients  (weighing  nearly 
sixty  pounds). 

"(4).  His  Repertorium,  consisting  of  four  volumes,  containing 
an  aggregate  of  4,239  pages,  fifty-two  lines  to  the  page. 

"(5).  A  large  number  of  letters  from  Drs.  Stapf  and  Gross  to 
Hahnemann. 

"(6).  Miscellaneous  writings. 

"(7).  A  bust  of  Hahnemann,  with  its  crown  of  gold,  sculp- 
tured by  the  celebrated  David. 

"Madame  Bcenninghausen  is  exceedingly  desirous  that  these 
precious  writings  should  be  published  in  America ;  circum- 
stances, however,  compel  her  to  fix  a  price  on  them,  and  it  has 
been  arranged  that  for  the  sum  of  $10,000  and  a  ro}'alt5^  she 
will  part  with  them. 

"  Mr.  Stuart  (with  whom  Dr.  Berridge,  of  England,  has  been 
intimately  acquainted  for  some  years)  proposes  to  send  one  of 
his  sons  to  Paris  as  soon  as  the  money  is  raised,  and  then  and 
there  receive  in  exchange  the  MSS.,  etc.,  and  at  once  ship  them 
to  the  United  States. 

"After  the  reading  of  this  report,  the  meeting  resolved  itself 
into  an  organization  for  the  furtherance  of  these  ends,  and  the 
following  physicians  were  appointed  a  committee  with  power  to 
add  to  their  number: 

Edward  Bayard,  M.  D.,  of  New  York. 

E.  W.  Berridge,  M.  D.,  London,  England,  Foreigyi  Secretary. 

H.  N.  Guernsey,  M.  D.,  Philadelphia,  Presideyit. 


MEETING    OF    HOMCEOPATHIC    PHYSICIANS.  503 

Constantine  Hering,  M.  D.,  Philadelphia. 

J.  K.  lyce,  M.  D,,  Philadelphia,   Vice  Preside7it. 

Ad.  Lippe,  M.  D.,  Philadelphia,  Treasitrer. 

Thos.  Moore,  M.  D.,  Philadelphia,  Secretary. 

Thos.  Skinner,  M.  D.,  lyiverpool,  England. 

W.  P.  Wesselhoeft,  M.  D.,  Boston,  Mass. 

David  Wilson,  M.  D.,  London,  Kngland. 

"The  importance  of  these  works  to  all  Homoeopathic  physic- 
ians cannot  be  overestimated.  It  now  only  remains  for  them  to 
subscribe  and  collect  the  required  amount,  and  so  raise  a  worthy 
monument  to  that  illustrious  healer  to  whom  they  are  indebted 
not  only  for  the  very  reputation  they  possess,  but  also  for  health 
and  perhaps  life  itself. 

"All  donations  are  to  be  sent  to  the  Treasurer,  Ad.  lyippe, 
M.  D.,  1204  Walnut  Street,  Philadelphia,  Penna.,  who  will 
furnish  acknowledgment  for  the  same. 

' '  The  ijnmediate  attention  of  all  the  adherents  of  Homoeopath}-, 
whether  lay  or  medical,  is  earnestly  requested,  as  unless  the  sum 
of  fifteen  thousand  dollars  (being  the  estimated  cost  with  the 
expenses  of  printing,  etc.)  is  raised  within  a  year  the  project 
will  have  to  be  abandoned,  and  all  funds  collected  will  be 
returned  to  the  donors. 

"H.  N.  Guernsey,  M.  D.,  President. 
"Thomas  Moore,  M.  D.,  Secretary." 

There  were  present  at  this  meeting  Drs.  Constantine  Hering, 
Henry  N.  Guernsey,  Ad.  Lippe,  C.  B.  Knerr,  J.  K.  Lee,  Thos. 
Moore,  Joseph  C.  Guernsey. 

While  it  was  the  desire  of  all  present  that  these  valuable  docu- 
ments should  be  given  to  the  Homoeopathic  profession,  yet  the 
sum  demanded  seemed  very  exorbitant.  Some  money  was  sub- 
scribed, but  the  matter  was  dropped. 

It  would  seem  that  the  willingness  both  of  Madame  Hahne- 
mann and  of  her  adopted  daughter  and  heir  to  give  to  the  Hom- 
oeopathic profession  of  America  the  literary  treasures  left  by 
Hahnemann  depended  greatly  upon  the  amount  of  remuneration 
that  would  accrue  to  themselves. 

Nothing  was  done  after  this  by  the  profession  in  the  United 
States.  No  action  has  since  been  taken  in  Europe.  Madame 
Boenninghausen  at  present  (1894)  resides  at  Munster,  Germany, 


504  LIFE   OF    HAHNEMANN. 

and  so  far  as  is  known  to  the  compiler  of  this  book  still  has 
Hahnemann's  unpublished  papers  in  her  possession  and  is  likely 
to  keep  them.  In  a  letter  lately  received  from  a  prominent 
Homoeopathic  physician  in  Germany,  he  says:  "This  lady  for 
some  reason  is  decidedly  unkind  to  every  suggestion  concerning 
her  stepfather  Hahnemann." 

The  truth  about  this  so  much  talked  of  "sixth  edition"  is 
that  it  is  simply  the  fifth  edition  annotated  by  Hahnemann.  He 
never  wrote  a  new  edition  after  the  fifth.  Madame  Hahnemann 
must,  at  the  time  she  was  promising  so  much  to  the  profession, 
have  known  how  impossible  it  was  of  fulfillment.  When  Dr. 
Campbell  visited  Madame  Boenninghausen,  after  the  death  of 
Madame  Hahnemann,  the  truth  was  discovered. 

However  much  Madame  Hahnemann  may  have  wished  to  do 
for  the  benefit  of  the  followers  of  her  husband,  it  is  quite  within 
the  bounds  of  truth  to  say  that  she  did  not  do  it. 


HAHNEMANN'S  FAMILY.* 

WIVES. 

1.  Johanna  Henrietta  Leopoldine  Kuchler,  daughter  of 
Godfried  Henry  Kuchler,  step-daughter  of  the  apothecary  Hase- 
ler,  born  June  7,  1762;  married  at  Dessau,  December  i,  1782; 
died  at  Coethen,  March  31,  1830.     Eleven  children. 

2.  Melanie  D'Hervilly,  daughter  of  a  painter  of  Savoy. 
He  afterwards  became  blind  and  destitute,  and  Hahnemann  cared 
for  him.  Adopted  daughter  of  (the  late  Minister  of  Justice  and 
President  of  the  Executive  Directory  of  the  French  Republic  in 
the  time  of  the  Eighteenth  Brumaire,  1799,)  Louis  Jerome  Gohier. 
(M.  Gohier  died  in  1830.)  Born  in  1800;  married  at  Coethen, 
January  28,  1835;   ^i^d  at  Paris,  May  27,  1878.     No  children. 


CHILDREN. 

(All  by  first  wife.)  .     ' 

1.  Henriette,  born  at  Gommern  in  1783;  married  Pastor 
Forster;  lived  in  Dresdorf,  near  Sangerhausen,  in  the  Thuringen 
Hartz  Mountains.  Had  children:  Louis,  merchant;  Robert, 
farmer;  Angeline,  who  married  Herr  Stollberg;  Adelheid,  un- 
married. 

2.  Friedrich,  born  at  Dresden,  November  30,  1786;  married 
in  1812;  had  but  one  child,  a  daughter,  who  married  Rector 
Hohlfeld,  of  Dresden.     Died  about  1829. 

3.  WiEHELMiNE,  born  at  Dresden  about  1788;  married  Music 
Director  Richter,  of  Gera;  died  about  1818;  had  one  son,  Her- 
mann Friedrich  Sigismund,  who  died  at  Coethen,  May  13,  1866, 

4.  AmaliE,  married  Dr.  Leopold  Suss,  by  whom  she  had  one 
son,  Leopold  Suss,  who  afterwards  took  the  name  Suss-Hahne- 
mann,  and  who  is  now  (1895)  a  Homoeopathic  physician  in 
London.  Married  for  second  husband,  Herr  Liebe;  lived  in  Paris 
and  London;  died  in  Coethen,  December  7,  1857.! 

*"Ein  biographisciies,   Denkmal,"  p.   122,  and  Albrecht's  '■  ]l,eben  und 
Wirken,"  p.  107. 
■fAll.  horn.  ZHtung,  Vol.  Iv,  p.  144.     (December  14,  1857.) 


5o6  LIFK   OF   HAHNEMANN. 

5,  CaroIvINE,  died  unmarried.  A  writer  in  Schwabe's  Popu- 
laire  Zeitschrift  fur  Homoopathie  in  1893  (Dr.  Puhlmann)  says: 
"A  grown  up  daughter  was  murdered  while  he  lived  in  Leipsic, 
and  another  daughter,  Caroline,  probably  met  her  death  in  the 
same  way,  for  she  was  found  dead  in  a  mill  pond  near  Coethen." 

6  (7).  Twins:  Frederika,  married  Post  and  Clothing  Inspec- 
tor Dellbruck,  in  Stotteritz,  near  L,eipsic.     7.   A  still  born  sister. 

8.  Ernst,  born  at  Konigslutter  in  1798;  killed  by  a  fall  from 
a  wagon  when  a  babe,  near  Mulhausen. 

9.  ElEONore,  married  to  Herr  Klemmen,  afterwards  to  Dr. 
Wolff. 

10.  Charlotte,  born  at  Leipsic;  lived  with  her  father  and 
died  at  Coethen  unmarried,  April  13,  1863.  (Died  at  Coethen, 
April  13,  1863,  of  paralysis  of  the  lungs,  Miss  Charlotte  Hahne- 
mann. She  was  the  last  surviving  unmarried  daughter  of  our 
great  Master. — Am.  Horn.  Rev.,  Vol.  iii.,  p.  576.  See  Allg. 
Zeitu7ig.) 

Eutze's  Fliegende  Blatter  for  April  24,  1863,  has:  "On  Mon- 
day evening  at  11}^  o'clock,  the  13th  April,  1863,  died  Fraulein 
Charlotte  Hahnemann." 

11.  EouiSE,  born  at  Eeipsic;  married  Dr.  Mossdorf;  after  his 
death  she  lived  at  Coethen  with  Charlotte. 


BROTHERS  AND  SISTERS. 

1.  August  Hahnemann,  Field  Apothecary  in  Austria. 

2.  Charlotte  Hahnemann,  married  for  her  first  husband 
Pastor  A.  B.  Trinius,  of  Eisleben;  by  whom  one  son,  Bernard. 
For  second  husband  she  married  General  Superintendent  Muller, 
of  Eisleben. 

3.  Minna  Hahnemann,  married  M.  Aubortin,  of  Stuttgart; 
his  daughter  married  Von  Eandech,  and  lived  at  Rosswein. 


1 


BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

LIST  OF  TRANSLATIONS  MADE  BY  HAHNEMANN. 


FROM  THE  ENGLISH. 

1777-  STEDTMANN'S  PHYSIOLOGICAL  ESSAYS  AND  OBSERVA- 
TIONS.    Leipsic.     Muller. 

1777-     NUGENT'S  ESSAY  ON  HYDROPHOBIA.     Leipsic.     Muller. 

1777.  FALCONER  ON  WATER  AND  WARM  BATHS.  Leipsic.  Hil- 
scher. 

1777-     BALL'S  MODERN  PRACTICE  OF  PHYSIC.     Leipsic.     2  vols, 

1789.  HISTORY  OF  THE  LIVES  OF  ABELARD  AND  HELOI^E. 
Leipsic.     Weygaud. 

1790.  INQUIRY  INTO  THE  NATURE,  CAUSES  AND  CURE  OF  CON- 
SUMPTION OF  THE  LUNGS.     Leipsic.     Weygand. 

1790.  A  TREATISE  ON  THE  MATERIA  MEDICA.  William  Cullen. 
Leipsic.     Schweikert.     2  vols. 

1791.  JOHN  GRIGG'S  ADVICE  TO  THE  FEMALE  SEX  IN  PREG- 
NANCY AND  LYING  IN  WITH  DIRECTIONS  ON  THE  MANAGE- 
MENT OF  CHILDREN.     Leipsic.     Weygand. 

1790-91.  ARTHUR  YOUNG'S  ANNALS  OF  AGRICULTURE.  Leipsic. 
Crusius.     2  vols. 

1791.  DONALD  MONRO'S  MEDICAL  AND  PHARMACEUTICAL 
CHEMISTRY.     Leipsic.     2  vols. 

1 791.  EDWARD  RIGBY'S  CHEMICAL  OBSERVATION  ON  SUGAR. 
Dresden.     Walther. 

1797-8.     EDINBURGH   DISPENSATORY.     Leipsic.     Fleischer.     2    vols. 

1797-8.  W.  TAPLIN'S  EOUERRY,  OR  MODERN  VETERINARY 
MEDICINE.     Leipsic.     2  vols. 

iSoo.  HOME'S  PRACTICAL  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  CURE  OF 
STRICTURES  OF  THE  URETHRA  BY  CAUSTICS.  Leipsic.  Fleischer. 

1800.  _  THESAURUS  MEDICAMINUM;  A  New  Collection  of  Medical  Pre- 
scriptions, Distributed  into  Twelve  Classes,  and  Accompanied  with 
Pharmaceutical  Remarks,  etc.  Leipsic.  Fleischer.  (This  is  the  book 
of  which  Hahnemann  wrote  a  preface  ridiculing  the  body  of  the  book.) 


FROM  THE  LATIN. 

r8o6.     ALBRECHT  VON    HALLER'S    MATERIA    MEDICA.     Leipsic. 
Steinaker. 


FROM  THE  FRENCH. 

1784.     DEMACHY'S   ART    OF  MANUFACTURING  CHEMICAL  PROD- 
UCTS.    With  Struve's  additions.     Leipsic.     Crusius.     2  vols. 


5o8  tlFE   OF   HAHNEMANN. 

1785.  DEMACHY'S  ART  OF  DISTILLING  LIQUOR.  Leipsic.  Crusius. 
2  vols. 

1787.  DEMACHY'S  ART  OF  MANUFACTURING  VINEGAR.  With 
Annotations  by  Struve.     Leipsic.     Crusius. 

1787.  SIGNS  OF  THE  PURITY  AND  ADULTERATIONS  OF  DRUGS. 
By  J.  B.van  den  Sande.     Dresden.     Walther. 

1 790-1.  METHERIE'S  ANALYTICAL  ESSAY  ON  PURE  AIR,  AND 
THE  DIFFERENT  KINDS  OF  AIR.     Leipsic.     Crusius.     2  vols. 

1796.  HAND-BOOK  FOR  MOTHERS.  J.  J.  Rousseau  on  the  Education 
of  Infants,  under  the  above  title:  Leipsic.  Fleischer.  Second  edition 
in  1804. 


FROM  THE  ITALIAN. 
1790.     FABBRONI'S  ART  OF  MAKING  WINE.     Leipsic.     Barth. 

ORIGINAL  WRITINGS,  BOOKS,  ESSAYS  AND  MAG- 

AZINE  ARTICLES. 

1779.  INAUGURAL  THESIS.  Defended  August  10,  1779.  Erlangen. 
Ellrodtianis. 

1782.  SMALL  ESSAYS  published  in  Kreb's  Journal.     Quedlinburg. 

1783.  ARTICLES  IN  THE  SAMMLUNG  FOR  PHYSICIANS.  Leipsic. 
Weygand.      1783-7. 

1784.  DIRECTIONS  FOR  CURING  OLD  SORES  AND  ULCERS,  Etc. 
Leipsic.     Crusius. 

1786.  ON  ARSENICAL  POISONING,  ITS  TREATMENT  AND  JUDICIAL 
DETECTION.     Leipsic.     Crusius. 

1787.  TREATISE  ON  THE  PREJUDICES  EXISTING  AGAINST  COAL 
FIREvS;  and  Mode  of  Improving  this  Combustible,  and  its  Employment 
in  Heating  Bakers'  Ovens.     Dresden.     Walther. 

1787.  ON  THE  DIFFICULTIES  OF  PREPARING  SODA  FROM  POT- 
ASH AND  KITCHEN  SALT.     In  Crell's  Annals  of  Chemistry. 

1788.  ON  THE  INFLUENCE  OF  CERTAIN  GASES  IN  THE  FER- 
MENTATION OF  WINE.    In  Crell's  Annals  of  Chemistry.  Vol.  i,  pt.  4. 

1788.  ON  THE  WINE  TEST  FOR  IRON  AND  LEAD.  In  Crell's  An- 
nals, vol.  I,  pt.  4. 

1788.  CONCERNING  BILE  AND  GALL  vSTONES.  In  Crell's  Annals, 
vol.  2,  pt.  10. 

1788.  ESSAY  ON  A  NEW  AGENT  IN  THE  PREVENTION  OF  PUTRE- 
FACTION. In  Crell's  Annals,  vol.  2,  pt.  12.  Also  Journal  of  Medicine. 
Paris.     Vol.  81. 

1789.  UNSUCCESSFUL  EXPERIMENTS  WITH  SOME  NEW  DIS- 
COVERIES.    In  Crell's  Annals  of  Chemistry,  vol.  i,  pt.  3. 

1789.  LETTER  TO  L.  CRELL  UPON  BARYTA.  In  Crell's  Annals  of 
Chemistry,  vol.  i,  pt.  8. 

1789.  DISCOVERY  OF  A  NEW  CONSTITUENT  IN  PLUMBAGO  In 
Crell's  Annals,  vol  2,  pt.  10. 

1789.  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  ASTRINGENT  PROPERTIES  OF 
PLANTS.     In  Crell's  Annals,  vol.  4,  pt.  10. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY.  509 

1789.  EXACT  MODE  OF  PREPARING  THE  SOLUBLE  MERCURY. 
In  the  New  Literary  Adviser  for  Physicians,  Halle,  1789,  and  in  Balding- 
er's  New  Magazine  for  Physicians,  vol.  11,  pt.  5. 

1789.  INSTRUCTIONS  FOR  SURGEONS  RESPECTING  VENEREAL 
DISEASES;  TOGETHER  WITH  A  NEW  MERCURIAL  PREPARA- 
TION. Leipsic.  Crusius.  Also  in  Dudgeon's  translation  of  Lesser  Writ- 
ings. 

1790.  COMPLETE  MODE  OF  PREPARING  THE  SOLUBLE  MER- 
CURY.    Crell's  Annals,  vol.  2,  pt.  8. 

1790.  NOTES  TO  CRELL  ON  VARIOUS  SUBJECTS.  Crell's  Annals, 
vol.  I,  pt.  3. 

1791.  INSOLUBILITY  OF  SOME  METALS  AND  THEIR  OXIDES,  IN 
CAUSTIC  AMMONIA.     Crell's  Annals,  vol.  2,  pt.  8. 

1791.  ON  THE  BEST  METHOD  OF  PREVENTING  SALIVATION  AND 
THE  DESTRUCTIVE  EFFECTS  OF  MERCURY.  Blumenbach's  Medi- 
cal Book,  vol.  3,  pt.  3. 

1792.  ON  THE  PREPARATION  OF  GLAUBER'S  SALTS  ACCORDING 
TO  THE  MODE  OF  BALLEN.     Crell's  Annals,  pt.  i. 

1792.  ON  THE  ART  OF  TESTING  WINE.  Scherfs  Archives  of  Medi- 
cine, vol.  3. 

1792.  THE  FRIEND  OF  HEALTH.  Vol.  i.  Leipsic.  Fleischer.  Vol. 
2.  Leipsic.  Crusius.  Consists  of  a  series  of  shorj:  essays  on  medical 
subjects.     Dudgeon's  Lesser  Writings.  Stapf's  Kl.  Med.  Schrift. 

1793-99.     PHARMACEUTICAL  LEXICON.     Leipsic.    Crusius.     In  4  vols. 

1793.  REMARKS  ON  THE  WIRTEMBURG  AND  HAHNEMANN'S 
WINE  TEST.     In  the  German  Literary  Gazette,  No.  79. 

1793.  PREPARATION  OF  THE  CASSEL  YELLOW.  Erfurt.  Also  in 
Act.  Academ.   Scient.   Erfurt.   1794. 

1794.  ON  HAHNEMANN'S  TEST  FOR  WINE  AND  THE  NEW 
LIQUOR  PROBATORIUS  FORTIOR.  Tromsdorf's  Journal  of  Phar- 
macy, vol.  2.     Crell's  Annals,  vol.  i. 

1795.  ON  CRUSTA  LACTEA.     Blumenbach's  Med.  Bibliothek,  vol.  3. 

1796.  DESCRIPTION  OF  KLOCKENBRING  DURING  HIS  INSANITY. 
In  German  Monthly  Magazine,  February,  1796.     Lesser  Writings. 

1796.  ESSAY  ON  A  NEW  PRINCIPLE  FOR  ASCERTAINING  THE 
CURATIVE  POWERS  OF  DRUGS.  Hufelaud's  Journal  for  Practicing 
Physicians,  vol.  2,  pts.  3,  4.  Lesser  Writings.  This  was  the  first  public 
announcement  of  the  new  principle  of  Homoeopathy. 

1797.  SOMETHING  ABOUT  THE  PULVERIZATION  OF  IGNATIA 
BEANS.     In  Tromsdorf's  Journal  of  Pharmacy,  vol.  5,  pt.  i. 

1797.  ARE  THE  OBSTACLES  TO  THE  ATTAINMENT  OF  SIMPLICITY 
AND  CERTAINTY  IN  THE  PRACTICE  OF  MEDICINE  INSUR- 
MOUNTABLE? Hufelaud's  Journal,  vol.  4.  pt.  4.  Lesser  Writings. 
Brit.  Jour.  Hom.,  vol.  2. 

1797.  CASE  OF  RAPIDLY  CURED  COLICODYNIA.  Hufeland's  Jour- 
nal, vol.  3,  pt.  I.     Dudgeon's  Lesser  Writings. 

1798.  ANTIDOTES  TO  SOME  HEROIC  VEGETABLE  SUBSTANCES. 
Hufeland's  Journal,  vol.  5,  pt.  i.     Lesser  Writings. 

1798.  SOME  KINDS  OF  CONTINUED  AND  REMITTENT  FEVERS. 
Hufeland's  Journal,  vol.  5,  pt.  i.     Lesser  Writings. 


5IO  LiF'E  OF  hahn:^mann. 

1798.  SOME  PERIODICAI.  AND  HEBDOMADAL  DISEASES  Hufe- 
land's  Journal,  vol.  5,  pt.  i.     Lesser  Writings. 

1800  PREFACE  TO  THE  THESAURUS  MEDICAMINUM.  Leipsic. 
Fleischer.  Lesser  Writings.  (This  is  the  preface  in  which  he  con- 
demns the  book.) 

1801.  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  THREE  CURRENT  METHODS  OF 
TREATMENT.  Hufeland's  Journal,  vol.  11,  pt.  4.  Stapf's  Kl.  Med. 
Schrift. 

1801.  ESSAY  ON  SMALL  DOSES  OF  MEDICINE  AND  OF  BELLA- 
DONNA IN  PARTICULAR.  Hufeland's  Journal,  vol.  13,  pt.  2.  Lesser 
Writings. 

1801.  FRAGMENTARY  OBSERVATIONS  ON  BROWN'S  ELEMENTS 
OF  MEDICINE.     Hufeland's  Journal,  vol.  12,  pt.  2.    Lesser  Writings. 

1801.  VIEW  OF  PROFESSIONAL  LIBERALITY  AT  THE  COM- 
MENCEMENT OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY.  Reichs  Anzeiger, 
No.  32.     Lesser  Writings. 

1801.  CURE  AND  PREVENTION  OF  SCARLET  FEVER.  Gotha. 
Becker.     Edited  by  Buchner,  and  reprinted  in  1844.     Lesser  Writings. 

1803.  ON  A  PROPOSED  REMEDY  FOR  HYDROPHOBIA.  In  Reichs 
Anzeiger,  No.  71.     Lesser  Writings. 

1803.  ON  THE  EFFECTS  OF  COFFEE.  Leipsic.  Steinacker.  Lesser 
Writings;  Am.  Jour.  Horn.,  June,  1835;  Horn.  Exam.,  Aug.,  1840.  Trans, 
into  French  by  Brunuow,  and  published  at  Dresden,  1824;  into  Danish 
by  Lund,  (Copenhagen.  1827;  into  Hungarian  by  Paul  Balogh,  Pesth, 
1829;  into  Russian  by  Dr.  A.  Peterson;  also  into  Spanish  and  Italian;  in 
1855  into  English  by  Mrs.  Epps,  and  published  in  a  book,  "  Progress  of 
Homoeopathy,"  London,  1855.  Trans,  by  W.  L.  Breyfogle,  Louisville, 
Ky.,   1875. 

1805.  FRAGMENTA  DE  VIRIBUS  MEDICAMENTORUM  POSITIVIS 
SIVE  IN  SANO  CORPORE  HUMAXO  OBSERVATIS.  Leipsic.  Barth. 
2  parts.  (The  first  collection  of  Drug  Provings  on  the  Healthy  Body.) 
This  was  issued  in  one  volume  in  1S34,  edited  by  F.  F.  Quiu,  of  London. 

1805.  ^SCULAPIUS  IN  THE  BALANCE-  Dresden.  Arnold.  Lesser 
Writings.  Brit  Jour.  Hom.,  vol.  3.  Horn.  Pioneer.  Schweikert's  Zeitung, 
vol.  I,  1830.     Trans,  into  Danish  by  Lund. 

1806.  OBJECTIONS  TO  PROPOSED  SUBSTITUTES  FOR  CINCHONA, 
AND  TO  SUCCEDANEA  IN  GENERAL.  In  Reichs  Anzeiger,  No.  57. 
Lesser  Writings. 

1806.  CONCERNING  SUBSTITUTES  FOR  QUININE.  Hufeland's  Jour- 
nal, vol.  23. 

1806.  WHAT  ARE  POISONS?  WHAT  ARE  MEDICINES?  Hufeland's 
Journal,  vol.  24,  pt.  3. 

1806.  SCARLET  FEVER  AND  PUPURA  MILIARIS.TWO  DIFFERENT 
DISEASES.     Hufeland's  Journal,  vol.  17,  pt.  i. 

1806.  MEDICINE  OF  EXPERIENCE.  Berlin.  Wittig.  Hufeland's 
Journal,  vol  22,  pt.  3.     Lesser  Writings.     Brit.  Jour.  Hom.,  vol.  i. 

1808.  ON  THE  VALUE  OF  SPECULATIVE  SYSTEMS  OF  MEDICINE, 
ESPECIALLY  IN  CONNECTION  WITH  THE  VARIOUS  SYSTEMS  OF 
PRACTICE.  AUgemeine  Anzeiger.  Lesser  Writings.  Brit.  Jour.  Horn., 
vol.  2.    Hom.  Exam.,  1840.  Am.  Jour.  Hom.,  Feb.,  1835.  Hom.  Pioneer. 


BIBIvIOGRAPHY.  5II 

180S.  EXTRACT  FROM  A  LETTER  TO  A  PHYSICIAN  OF  HIGH 
STANDING  ON  THE  GREAT  NECESSITY  OF  A  REGENERATION 
IN  MEDICINE.  lu  Allgemeine  Anzeiger,  No.  343  Lesser  Writings. 
Horn.  Exam.,  Sept.,  1840.  Horn.  Pioneer.   (Letter  to  Hufelaud.) 

1808.  INDICATIONS  OF  THE  H0MC130PATHIC  EMPLOYMENT  OF 
MEDICINES  IN  ORDINARY  PRACTICE.  Hufeland's  Journal,  vol.  26, 
pt.  2;  also  in  first  three  editions  of  Organou.  Dudgeon's  trans  of  the 
Organon. 

180S.  _  ON  THE  PRESENT  WANT  OF  FOREIGN  MEDICINES.  Allge- 
meine Anzeiger,  No.  207.  Lesser  Writings. 

1808.  ON  SUBSTITUTES  FOR  FOREIGN  DRUGS.  AND  ON  THE 
RECENT  ANNOUNCEMENT  OF  THE  MEDICAL  FACULTY  IN 
VIENNA  RELATIVE  TO  THE  SUPERFLU0USNE3S  OF  THE 
LATTER.     Allgemeine  Anzeiger,  No.  327.  Lesser  Writings. 

1808.  OBSERVATIONS  ON  SCARLET  FEVER.  Allgemeine  Anzeiger, 
No.  160.   Lesser  Writings. 

1808.  REPLY  TO  A  QUESTION  ABOUT  THE  PROPHYLACTIC  FOR 
SCARLET  FEVER.     Hufeland's  Journal,  vol.  27,  pt.  4. 

1809.  TO  A  CANDIDATE  FOR  THE  DEGREE  OF  M.  D.  Allgemeine 
Anzeiger,  No.  227.  Lesser  Writings. 

1809.  SIGNS  OF  THE  TIMES  IN  THE  ORDINARY  SYSTEM  OF 
MEDICINE.     Allgemeine  Anzeiger,  No.  326    Lesser  Writings. 

1809.  ON  THE  PREVAILING  FEVER.  Allgemeine  Anzeiger,  No.  261. 
Lesser  Writings. 

1810.  ORGANON  OF  RATIONAL  HEALING.  Dresden.  Arnold.  2d 
edition,  1819;  3d  edition,  1824;  4th  edition,  1829;  5th  edition,  1833 

Trans,  into  French  by  Brunnow,  and  published  in  Dresden  by  Arnold  in 
1824;  2d  edition  of  same,  1832. 

Into  Hungarian  in  1830,  Pesth,  Ottonal. 

French  translation  by  Dr.  Joiirdan,  Paris,  Bailliere,  1832;  also  in  1834;  3d 
edition  of  same,  1845;  4th,  1873. 

In  1833  translated  from  the  4th  German  edition  by  Chas.  H.  Devriant,  with 
notes  by  Sam'l  Stratton.     Dublin,  London,  Edinburgh. 

Trans   by  Dr.  Liedbeck  into  Swedish,  Stockholm,  1836. 

In  1840,  into  Russian  by  Wratzky;  into  Russian  by  Sarokin  in  1887-90, 

Into  Spanish  by  Sanllehy,  Madrid;  into  Spanish  in  1853  ^Y  Valero. 

Into  Italian  by  Guranta,  and  also  by  Francesco  Romano. 

A  6th  German  edition  was  edited  by  Lutze,  Coethen,  1865. 

In  1849  by  Dudgeon  into  English  from  the  5th  edition.  London,  Head- 
land. 

In  1836  the  1st  American  from  the  British  translation  of  1833  was  published 
by  the  Allentown  Academy.  1843,  2d  American  edition.  New  York, 
Radde.  1849,  3^  American  edition.  New  York,  Radde.  1869,  4th  Ameri- 
can edition,  New  York,  Radde.  In  1876  it  was  re-translated  by  Conrad 
Wesselhoeft,  of  Boston,  and  published  by  Boericke  &  Tafel.  This  is  the 
5th  American  from  the  5th  German  edition. 
New  edition  by  Dudgeon,  with  an  Appendix.     Loudon,  1893. 

Trans,  by  Fincke,  Jour,  of  Homoeopathies,  New  York,  1889.  See,  also  Cal. 
Hom'th,  vol.  9,  p.  337. 

1811.  MATERIA  MEDICA  PURA.  Dresden.  Arnold.  6  vols.  Vol.  i, 
1811;  vol.  2,  1816;  vol.  3,  1817:  vol.  4,  1818;  vol.  5,  1819;  vol.  6,  1821. 

2d  edition.     Vol.  i,  1822;  vol.  2,  1824;  vol.  3,  1825;  vol.  4,  1825;  vol.  5,  1826; 

vol.  6,  1827. 
3d  edition,    1830.     Vol.    2,    1833.     Only  two  vols,   were  published  of  this 

edition. 


512  LIFE   OF   HAHNEMANN. 

In  1825  translated  into  Italian  by  Romani.     Naples.     Nobile. 

In  1826  an  edition  in  Latin  was  published  in  Leipsic  by  Bruunow,  Stapf 
and  Gross,  containing  also  the  Viribus. 

Trans,  in  1828  into  French  by  Bigel.  Varsovie.  Into  French  by  Jourdan  in 
1834,  Paris,  Bailliere.     In  1877  by  the  Drs.  Simon  into  French. 

In  1840  Dr.  Quin  commenced  a  translation  into  English  in  London,  but 
when  vol.  i  was  published  it  was  destroyed  by  fire.  No  others  were  pub- 
lished. 

Trans,  by  Hempel  in  1846.     New  York.     Radde. 

A  Hahnemann  Materia  Medica  by  Drysdale,  Black,  Dudgeon  and  Hughes, 
published  in  Loudon  in  1S52;  but  3  parts  published. 

Into  Italian  by  Dadea  in  1873.     Turin.     2  vols. 

1880.     Trans,  by  Dudgeon.     London.     2  vols,  with  additions  by  Hughes. 

1880.     Trans,  by  Arndt.     Med.  Counselor,  vols.  3,  4,  5. 

181 2.  DISSERTATION  ON  THE  HELLEBORISM  OF  THE  ANCIENTS. 
Leipsic.  Tauchnitz.  Thesis  to  the  Faculty  at  Leipsic.  Also  in  Lesser 
Writings. 

1813.  SPIRIT  OF  THE  HOMCEOPATHIC  DOCTRINE  OF  MEDICINE. 
In  Allgemeine  Anzeiger,  March,  1813.  Vol.  2  of  Materia  Medica  Pura. 
Lesser  Writings.  As  a  pamphlet  in  New  York  by  Hans  Birch  Gram  in 
1825.  Trans,  by  Ad.  Lippe  in  1878,  and  published  in  The  Organon,  a 
Journal.  Horn.  Exam.,  Oct.,  1840.  Also  trans,  by  G.  M.  Scott,  London, 
Glasgow.     1838.     Trans,  by  Lund  into  Danish. 

1814.  TREATMENT  OF  TYPHUS  FEVER  AT  PRESENT  PREVAIL- 
ING.    Allgemeine  Anzeiger,  No.  6.     Lesser  Writings. 

1816.  VENEREAL  DISEASE  AND  ITS  IMPROPER  TREATMENT. 
Allgemeine  Anzeiger,  No.  211.     Lesser  Writings. 

1816.  TREATMENT  OF  BURNS.  Answer  to  Dr.  Dzondi.  In  Allgemeine 
Anzeiger,  Nos.  156,  204.     Lesser  Writings. 

1819.  ON  UNCHARITABLENESS  TO  SUICIDES.  Allgemeine  Anzeiger, 
No.  144.     Lesser  Writings. 

1820.  ON  THE  PREPARATION  AND  DISPENSING  OF  MEDICINES 
BY  HOMCEOPATHIC  PHYSICIANS.  First  published  in  Stapf 's  Lesser 
Writings  of  Hahnemann.     Also  Dudgeon's  Lesser  Writings. 

1821.  TREATMENT  OF  PUPURAMILIARIS.  Allgemeine  Anzeiger,  No. 
26.     Lesser  Writings. 

1825.  HOW  MAY  HOMCEOPATHY  BE  MOST  CERTAINLY  ERADI- 
CATED?    Allgemeine  Anzeiger,  No.  227.     Lesser  Writings. 

1825.  INFORMATION  FOR  THE  TRUTH  SEEKER.  Published  in  the 
Materia  Medica  Pura  under  the  title:  How  Can  Small  Doses  of  Such  Very 
Attenuated  Medicines  as  Homoeopathy  Employs  Still  Possess  Great 
Power?  Allgemeine  Anzeiger,  No.  194.  Lesser  Writings.  Horn. 
Pioneer.     Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  vol.  2. 

1828.  CHRONIC  DISEASES,  THEIR  NATURE  AND  HOMCEOPATHIC 
TREATMENT.  Dresden  and  Leipsic.  Arnold.  Vols,  i,  2,  3,  1828;  vol. 
4,  1830. 

2d  edition.  Dusseldorf.  Schaub.  Vols,  i,  2,  1835;  vol.  3,  1837;  vol.  4, 
183S;  vol.  5,  1839. 

Trans,  into  French  by  Jourdan.  Paris,  1832.  2d  edition  of  same  1846. 
Into  French  by  Bigel.     Edited  by  Des  Guidi  in  1832. 

Into  English  from  French  edition  by  G.  M.  Scott.     Glasgow,  1S42. 

Into  Italian  by  Belluomini.     Teramo.      1832-7.     4  vols. 

In  1849  i"to  Italian  by  Villannera.     Madrid. 

In  1845  by  Hempel  into  English.     New  York.     Radde.     5  vols. 

Reprint  of  vol.  i  in  Med.  Advance,  vol.  22.     1889. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY.  513 

lu  iSq4  from  5th  German  edition  iuto  English  by  h-  H.  Tafel.  Boericke 
&  tafel.     Philadelphia. 

1S29.  LETTERS  BY  HAHNEMANN  TO  DR.  SCHRETER.  New 
Archives  of  vStapf.     Vol.  23. 

1829.  LETTER  TO  KORSAKOFF  ABOUT  IMPREGNATION  OF  GLOB- 
ULES WITH  MEDICINE.  vStapf's  Archivs.  Vol.  8,  pt.  2.  Lesser 
Writings. 

1829.  LESSER  MEDICAL  WRITINGS  OF  HAHNEMANN.  Collected 
by  Stapf.  Dresden:  Arnold.  But  for  this  book  we  should  know  but 
little  of  the  essaj's  of  Hahnemann.  These  are  for  the  most  part  trans- 
lated and  published  in  Dudgeon's  edition  of  Lesser  Writings,  of  which 
there  is  an  P^nglish  and  an  American  edition. 

1S31.  ALLOPATHY,  A  WORD  OF  WARNING  TO  SICK  PERSONS. 
Leipsic.     Baumgartner.     Lesser  Writings.     Trans,  into  Danish  by  Lund. 

1831.  APPEAL  TO  THINKING  PHILANTHROPISTS  RESPECTING 
THE  MODE  OF  PROPAGATION  OF  ASIATIC  CHOLERA.  Leipsic. 
Berger.  Lesser  Writings.  Brit.  Jour.  Hom.,  Oct.,  1849.  S.  W.  Hom. 
Jour,  and  Rev.,  vol.  3. 

1831.  CURE  OF  ASIATIC  CHOLERA.  Coethen.  Aug.,  1831.  Same. 
2d  edition.     Leipsic.     Gluck. 

1831.  LETTER  ABOUT  THE  CURE  OF  CHOLERA.  Berlin.  Hinsch- 
wald.     Trans,  into  Danish  by  Lund. 

1831.  CIRCULAR  ON  THE  CHOLERA.  Schweikert's  Zeituug  d.  Natur. 
Heilkunst.     Vol.  2. 

1831.  CURE  AND  PREVENTION  OF  ASIATIC  CHOLERA.  Stapf's 
Archivs.     Vol.  11,  pt.  i.     Schweickert's  Zeitung,  Vol.  2. 

1831.  NOTES  BY  HAHNEMANN  ON  KORSAKOFF'S  LETTER  ON 
ATTENUATION  OF  HOMCEOPATHIC  REMEDIES.  Stapf 's  Archivs, 
vol.  II,  pt.  2.      Lesser  Writings. 

1832.  SUMMONS  TO  THE  HALF-HOMCBOPATHISTS  OF  LEIPSIC. 
N.  W.  Jour.  Horn.,  vol.  4. 

1832.     CURE  OF  CHOLERA.     Nurnburg.     Stein. 

1832.     PREFACE  TO  BCENNINGHAUSEN'S  REPERTORY. 

1843.  INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  PROVING  OF  ARSENIC.  Brit.  Jour. 
Hom.,  vol.  I. 

1845.  EXAMINATION  OF  THE  SOURCES  OF  THE  MATERIA  MEDICA. 
Brit.  Jour.  Hom.,  vol    3. 

1849.  ON  THE  CONTAGIOUSNESS  OF  CHOLERA.  Brit.  Jour.  Hom., 
Vol.  7. 

1853.  TREATMENT  OF  CHRONIC  LOCAL  DISEASE;  AND  OF  PHTHI- 
SIS.    Brit.  Jour.  Hom.,  Vol.  11. 

1863.     ITCH  INSECT.     Brit.  Jour.  Horn.,  Vol.  21. 

1850.  STUDIES  OF  HOMCEOPATHIC  MEDICINE.  Hartung.  Paris. 
2  vols.     Contains  12  essays  and  14  letters  by  Hahnemann. 

The  full  titles  of  these  books  can  be  found  in  my  large  work  on  Hom- 
oeopathic Bibliography.     Philada:  Boericke  &  Tafel,  1892. 


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